Most used words...

This little post is from wordle.net that creates a fun design of all the most used words from my blog.
I picked 100 words.
I think Olivia's is the biggest because it was just her birthday...

New Start

We went to Red Robin for Olivia's birthday on Saturday. Olivia ordered cantaloupe with a corn dog. Fancy stuff. She said that the whole reason she wanted to go to Red Robin was so she could have cantaloupe. She ate all of it (We could almost see through the cantaloupe skin!) and then didn't have room for her free ice cream sundae, so she shared it with the rest of us instead. When the waiters and waitresses came over to sing she was just looking down at the ice cream the whole time (except when I took the picture of course) and acting all shy. She wouldn't say anything to them.We were okay with that. My dinner came with melon slices and that's what Elizabeth ordered with her burger too. Andy and Elizabeth waiting for their dinner.Vincent eating one of my melon slices. I think I need to start buying melon more. We have four growing in our garden right now, but I'm guessing they won't be ready for another month or so since we planted in June. We went to Toys R Us to use Olivia's $3 card from them and her birthday money. She had fun looking at all the things she could pick and finally chose something that she could share with Elizabeth. I'm so happy that they like to play together. It makes things much easier.
Sunday was our final day of 1-4pm church time for another few years. It was crazy. We had 18 kids in the nursery (with several helpers-glad we aren't all alone). Olivia gave a talk in primary about miracles. Andy helped her with that and we were both able to sneak away to listen for a few minutes. She talked about Jesus walking on water and Peter walking on water until he got scared. She did a great job repeating what Andy told her from the paper they wrote that morning. We went over to Andy's parent's house for dinner and cake for one of his sister's birthdays. We spent most of the time recovering from the crazy nursery time. Next Sunday will be so much nicer (I hope) with the 9-12pm time for church. After we got home, Vincent went right to bed (at 7pm) and then after Andy got back from home teaching, he gave the girls their Father's blessings for school.
Monday was another crazy day for me. I talked my mom into coming and hanging out at my house all day weeks ago. I am the PTA Secretary at the school and we planned the Staff Luncheon the day before school starts to introduce ourselves and just to be nice (and PTA does it every year.) So, I woke up when Andy left for work and scrubbed and baked a ten pound bag of potatoes, made a salad, and got everything else ready for the day. The luncheon is fun, but a little busy setting up and making sure we have enough of everything (there are 75 staff!).
This picture is some of the staff eating. We made potato bar and then asked other parents who we count on all the time to bring salads and desserts. We ended up with TONS of extra food. It's better to overplan than underplan, right?I sat at the table next to the entrance most of the morning to greet the staff and collecting money for PTA dues for them to become PTA members and selling the school t-shirts. It was fun to see all the new staff and meet them. I helped with most of the clean up and then realized that it was time for a stop in at home to pick up the girls. My mom stayed and rested while Vincent took his nap and I took the girls over to a fun party at a friend's house. She hosts an annual ice cream social where everyone brings ice cream toppings and the kids all play games and have fun. It's awesome.
Elizabeth is going under the limbo stick here. She's wearing a navy blue outfit. Olivia was one of the last kids still going, but a lot of other kids gave up when the ice cream came out.The line for ice cream. I'm guessing about a hundred kids? I didn't count. It was busy.
I learned that one of the sweet widows in our ward passed away that morning. She really was so sweet and thoughtful and she will be missed. When we were done there (earlier than the girls like always), I had to drop them off at home with my mom to go to the OB doctor for an appointment. (No pictures of that. Don't worry.) I'm 18 1/2 weeks, but this one wasn't the ultrasound appointment yet. I am scheduled for THE appointment in a few weeks though. The baby's heartbeat was good and everything was normal, so although I always am waiting forever for the appointment, I got right out of there and maybe he got back on schedule for someone else. I got home at 5pm and my mom went home to feed the missionaries. She was awesome to spend all day at my house to help me out. It was much less arranging than it would have been otherwise. I made some dinner and then cleaned up and sat for a few minutes before family home evening and then Andy (mostly) put the kids to bed and I decided that I'd better go to Albertson's to do their special doubler coupons and their other great sales going on. I got all the coupons ready the night before so I could just go. When I came home, I was SO ready for bed!

Tuesday was the first day of school for us. Andy's mom came over to watch Vincent while I took the girls with me to the school.
Elizabeth's shirt has horses and says "Live, love, laugh, dream" on it. She likes it.Olivia did get a new skirt. I don't really need to buy either of them clothes because they have so many to choose from, but I did find a few things to let them wear the first few days.Elizabeth in her classroom at her desk.Olivia and I dropped Elizabeth off in her classroom. Her teacher seems SO nice! Elizabeth's class sits alphabetically and they all have a number of where they fit into the alphabet in their class. Their cubbies have numbers on them instead of their names too. I was a little surprised that Elizabeth was #12. There are 24 kids in her class right now. We left her there and then went downstairs (that's right two story elementary school and second grade is upstairs!) for Olivia's kindergarten assessment appointment.
Olivia waiting for the assessment.
The staff took her into a room with some of the other kids and asked her questions (I guess. They leave the parents in the hall.) She came out about thirty minutes later all happy and seemed to do just fine. Wednesday they will post the classes and Thursday the kindergartners get to go for their first day. I met the new kindergarten teacher at the luncheon and she is super energetic and fun, so I'm totally okay with either teacher there. Elizabeth had the one who stayed and I like her too. When we got back home, I traded my mother in law and stayed home with Vincent while she took Olivia shopping for a new school outfit and out to lunch. They had fun picking out an outfit for Thursday. I'll put pictures on here when she wears it. It's adorable and sassy and girly, just like Olivia. Vincent and I built train tracks, started laundry, and made some cookies with dough I froze last week. When Olivia got back, I set her up with a movie and Vincent and I took a nap. I needed it. Then it was time to go and pick up Elizabeth and take Olivia to her first ballet class of the season. After ballet we stopped in at the library to pick out some new books to read and then came home for dinner. Andy went to Leavenworth for work today, so he won't be home for another hour or so and is eating on the way home. It's just about time to get these kids ready for bed. Tomorrow should be a little calmer as we get all settled into the school routine. I don't have anything planned except taking Elizabeth to school and our weekly game night. Maybe I'll weed the garden. I think I might be up for that now almost three weeks after my surgery....We'll see.

Sunday Time Change

I LOVE that our Stake changes ward times in September. If you don't like your time, it just feels like less of a year to wait and when other people talk/complain about their time in January, you can say you only have eight months of your current time. We are currently at the 1pm-4pm time. I have to say that with little kids, it is THE WORST time. On top of that, Andy and I are the nursery leaders and consistently have about 15 kids (we do have a few helpers). I wonder if that number will go up in September, but all the three year olds will move up to Primary in January, so it's only four months of ALL of them, right? We have one more week of 1pm-4pm church and then we will move clear up to the 9am-12pm time. I like that time, but I do have to get up earlier. I like having a nap though before Sunday dinner. I miss that. My new theory is that Vincent still takes naps (every day except for Sunday) because we go consistently. Sure he is a little more grouchy than normal, but that could be because we are trying to keep him quiet and still (or at least in our row) and he has to share with the kids in nursery. We have survived the time, so if you move to that time, GO. Church is important enough to sacrifice a nap or 48. (2 for Stake Conference, 2 for General Conference are taken out of that equation.)
I'm excited for 9am church. Only one more week of the worst time ever for kids to be at church.

Olivia is FIVE!

Olivia turned five today. She is so much fun and so cute and tries her best to behave and be polite. I guess something I'm doing worked for her. She likes to compliment people on everything from hair to clothes to shoes. Sunday night Andy's parents had strawberry shortcake at their house for Olivia's and Brad's birthdays. Brad is married to Andy's sister, Torrie. Olivia opening her present from Grandpa George and Grandma Shirley. Cousin Sami is there in the background a little upset because I don't think she understood that it wasn't her birthday. She did just have one in June, so she was a little upset. She settled down though.She even got to open a few presents early and loved playing/wearing them last night and today. When we got home we gave them (she shared with Elizabeth and Vincent) a little while to play with the new toys before sending them to bed. Then Andy blew up the balloons (I only blew up one because it hurt my tummy with all that pressure!) and I put up streamers and then taped the balloons up to decorate the room a little.
This morning the kids were all up before Andy went to work so Olivia opened her presents from us. I decided that would be a fun way for her to spend the morning before her birthday party and that maybe she would ask when her party is a little less.
I bought three of these at Kohl's for about a third of their normal cost in February. The huge one and one other one were on sale at Amazon last week, so I just bought them too. It looks like a lot (and maybe it is, but it didn't cost much), but now she has the whole set and it's plenty to share when friends are over. I thought about saving the big one for Christmas, but didn't feel like waiting that long (or hiding it).It worked until two hours before.... Meanwhile, I took all the toys out of the family room (where they always stay) for the parties. It's too hard to have all of our toys accessible when we are having a party because they all just get dumped out and tripped over. We have a lot of toys, but that with kids and a party is just too much, so I move them. I also vacuumed really good and moved around the furniture so there was room for a party, made stew for dinner, and loaded the dishwasher so everything would be ready. I was hoping to have a little tiny nap in there, but there wasn't time, so I did without it until after the party. Vincent took a nap the whole time the party was going on according to plan.
Olivia waiting at the window to see when her friends would come. She kept Olivia the Pig with her almost the whole party, unless I made her put her down to watch and when she opened the door to greet her friends, she told them, "This is my Olivia pig that I got for my birthday!" She loves it.Olivia had six friends come-three boys and three girls. Elizabeth was the party planner and while Olivia greeted the kids at the door, Elizabeth entertained them in the family room, until everyone was here. They played with balloons to keep them in the air and then popped them all, danced, played "duck, duck, goose", ate some cupcakes, watched Olivia open presents, and then played with her present we gave her this morning. It was fun. I gave each kid this little goodie bag. It has a little picture in the envelope that Olivia drew for each friend last week, a notebook, rainbow index cards, a pencil, crayons, and a pack of gum. I made the bags when I couldn't sleep on Saturday morning. The buttons are just hot glued on.I helped Olivia open up some of her toys from friends and went to take a nap until Vincent woke up a little later. The nap was awesome and felt much longer than it really was. (By the way, Sunday night was the first night I've been able to sleep all night without pain. It was great!)
I finished making the family party preparations and then finished making our stew for dinner before Andy got home to put the rainbow Skittles on the cake. As soon as we finished eating dinner, the party began! Four of our local siblings came and both sets of Olivia's grandparents with one set of her great-grandparents too, along with their families.
Olivia blew out her candles in little bursts. It was funny. She loves all rainbow colors and wanted a rainbow cake. It is strawberry cake and the frosting is a can of vanilla frosting with some strawberry jam mixed in. There is strawberry jam between the layers of cake too and Skittles on top. It was very sweet to put it mildly. It was also served with Rainbow Sherbet.It gets a little crazy, but we love it.
Vincent with a HUGE magnifying glass that Olivia got. Behind him looks like three tiny puppies, but they are just part of two costumes that the boy cousins came in.School starts for our little Olivia on Tuesday and it's four months until Christmas! Are we ready? Yes. I think so. My parents even gave her some cute little shorts to wear underneath her dresses for school to keep her modest.

Change of Plans

Today hasn't gone as I planned...and it's only 12:30.
The plan for today was to:
-Get ready and get dressed (I haven't dressed up in more than workout clothes since my gallbladder came out last Thursday.)
-My mother in law was going to pick us up and take us on some errands, like the library and grocery store. (I'm still on major drugs and can't drive.)
-Nap for me and Vincent. Movie for girls.
-Movie with a buddy (The Last Song which I planned on buying at the store).
-Nap for me.
-Dinner (French Dips which I planned on buying at the store.)
-Andy would pick up babysitter so we could go to a 50th birthday party for his boss, who he's worked for for 11 years and is a close friend of the family especially since Andy's almost the only employee.
-More sleeping for me.

As you can see, the day was ambitious to start out. It was destined to fail. I am still recovering from the gallbladder surgery, but I'm feeling better every day and trying to get back into a normal routine, just with a few extra naps thrown in.

INSTEAD today (so far):
-Got up and got dressed nice.
-Fixed breakfast for the kids.
-Put a new sheet on Vincent's bed.
-Called mother in law to tell her we were ahead of schedule to see if she could come a half hour sooner.
-Fixed everyone's hair, including Vincent.
-Cleaned up breakfast, just as Olivia threw her breakfast up on the kitchen floor.
-Cleaned up kitchen floor and got Olivia a towel and bowl.
-Mother in law arrived and took my grocery list and coupons, library bag of things to return, and Elizabeth and Vincent.
-Loaded Dishwasher.
-Mopped Kitchen Floor.
-Started Laundry.
-Discovered unfolded laundry in dryer from Saturday when Andy did the laundry.
-Folded and put away said laundry.
-Made some lemon water for Olivia to drink.
-Made calls to cancel some of the plans for today.
-Oh, and I took my medicine.
-My grandma called to see if she and my grandpa could drop something off for a minute. (They did. I met them outside with freshly washed hands quickly.)
-Watched a sleeping little girl on the couch clutching her bowl.
-Got a call from mother in law who is taking Elizabeth and Vincent to lunch and then coming home so Vincent can have a nap.

I hate when plans change.
Is it awful that I'm still crossing my fingers that she'll not be sick anymore and that we can still go out tonight? I'm sure that party will be fun even if it makes me tired and even if I only eat one tiny bite of cake. I'm sure Elizabeth and Vincent will be back soon, so I'd better get something for me to eat even though my stomach is churning after watching, cleaning, etc for Olivia and then I'll nap.
UPDATE: No more messes from Olivia or anyone else to clean up. She rested, drank some lemon water, ate some Saltines, and is playing with Elizabeth now. I think she just ate breakfast too fast or something.

News!

We are expecting a baby in January 2011. We are currently 16 weeks along and really excited to welcome our fourth child to the world.
(And may I just say, it was awfully hard to keep a secret since May!!!)
We wanted to wait until after my gallbladder was out to make sure all was well.

North Carolina Adventure

Andy writing:
I just finished a great trip for work that I took this week (Aug 9-12). I had to go to North Carolina to do some work on a control panel I designed. The whole thing started a few months ago when we shipped out a couple of panels to this chicken plant that's being built in a town called Kinston, NC. The door of one of the panels got banged up during shipping, so our customer sent it back to be fixed. Then the door got banged up again, and we had to send a new door to the location, and I had to go there to fix and re-test the panel. The nearest large airport to Kinston is in Raleigh, so I flew into there on Monday. The trip there was uneventful. Tuesday morning I went to the chicken plant.
This is what the panel looked like. I had to remove all the components from the door, take off the old door, install the new door, and replace all the components. It took about three hours to do all that.
Here's the twin to the broken panel. It controls that big blue motor right behind it. There's nothing really fancy, just a button to start and a button to stop, but it has a few 'safeties' to protect the equipment. One safety is a temperature probe on the motor bearing, if the temperature goes too high, a relay in the panel closes and the motor shuts off.
With my work done, I had free time for the rest of Tuesday and part of Wednesday. I drove a ways North to Virginia because that is where the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel is. I like bridges, and I like tunnels, and this is a place I've wanted to visit since I was a kid.
The bridge-tunnel connects the little piece of Virginia that's stuck on Maryland with the rest of Virginia. Near the South end there's two mile-long tunnels where the road goes under the main shipping channels. Most of the rest of the structure is made of low bridges, but at the North end there's a higher bridge section that medium sized boats can go under. It's really hard to see it, but there's a Navy hovercraft going along in the very center of this picture. It's leaving behind a white rooster-tail.Four artificial islands were built, to be the ends of the two tunnels. At the southern-most island, there's a parking area. This picture shows how rocks that cover the tunnel go down into the water. In the distance you can see the next island, where the tunnel comes back up. It would have been cool to see a big ship go through here, especially something like an aircraft carrier or a submarine, but there were only cargo ships nearby, and I would have had to wait around for hours for one of them to come by.
Here's what it looks like when you're inside the tunnel.There are a couple other tunnels in this area of Virginia, but they had too much traffic for me to risk taking pictures while driving. Then I had to drive back to Raleigh. Along the way, I stopped at a Walmart to get my usual souveneirs for the kids, those little license plates with your name on them. The trouble was, their selection was pretty lame. They had BUBBA, PRINCESS, SPOILED BRAT, and JESUS IS GREAT, but they didn't have Elizabeth, Olivia, or Vincent. They did have blank license plates with stickers to make your own. I was even able to get NaDell a license plate. For some strange reason she was never able to find them when she was a kid.
Wednesday was the day for me to fly home. My plane from Raleigh took off around 5pm, so I had some more time for sightseeing. I got the late plane on purpose, just in case the panel door didn't make it from Oregon by Tuesday, or something else went wrong, then I'd have some more time for work. My first stop Wednesday was Waffle House. This is one of my favorite things about traveling to the South. Sure, they look kind of iffy on the outside, but you can watch them make your food, so you can be fairly confident there's nothing wrong with it.
After Waffle House I went to downtown Raleigh so I could go visit the State Capitol. Along the way I spotted this interesting business. I had to take a picture because the name 'Killo Pest Control' cracked me up.
Here's the outside of the Capitol building. That bronze sculpture is Andrew Jackson (on the horse), James K. Polk and Andrew Johnson, who were born in North Carolina.

One of the interesting things inside the Capitol is this statue of George Washington dressed like Julius Caesar. This statue is a replica of one that got destroyed when the earlier Capitol building burned down while its roof was being zinc-plated. Ironically, the purpose of zinc-plating the roof was to make the building more fire-resistant.
This bust is of a man named Matthew Ransom. He was a Confederate general, and represented North Carolina in the US Senate, but he's not in my family tree because he was born in the 1820's and my Ransom ancestors didn't come to the United States until the 1850's. Maybe he's a great-great-great-great-uncle.

Across the street from the Capitol building are a history museum and a science museum. I went and visited them, but I didn't take pictures because I wasn't sure if flash photography was permitted in there, plus when you take pictures of stuff in glass cases, the flash makes reflections and the pictures look crummy. I got some lunch and started making my way back to airport. I just finished gassing up my rent-a-car when my phone rang. It was the airline computer and it told me that one of my flights was canceled, and that I wouldn't get home until Thursday. This wasn't good because I didn't want to be out of town while NaDell was having her gall-bladder-ectomy. I hurried to the airport, and talked to the guy at the ticket counter. He tried every possible combination on every possible airline and couldn't find a way for me to get home Wednesday. He said I would have to go as far as I could, then get a hotel and go the rest of the way Thursday. My route was Raleigh to Washington DC to Denver to Pasco. The Denver plane was the one that was canceled, so I flew to Washington DC and stood in a line for about an hour to get a hotel voucher. They sent me to this really nice hotel. How nice was it? For one thing, they had robes in the closet.
The only bad thing was that I didn't get to see any sights in Washington DC, or enjoy any of the luxurious amenities of the hotel because I got there at about 9:30pm, and had to leave at 7:30am. All I got to do was eat a really good burger in one of their restaurants, it was mostly free because I also got a $15 food voucher. The next morning, I got on the shuttle bus and went back to the airport. The plane rides to Denver and Pasco were mostly uneventful and I got home about 5pm.

Gallbladder

So, Andy went to North Carolina this week to fix an electrical panel that broke twice during delivery for work. He is lucky to get to go there. I want to go there someday. He left early Monday morning and was supposed to come home late Wednesday night, but he is stuck in Washington, D.C. instead tonight and can't come home until Thursday afternoon. His flight from D.C. to Denver was canceled due to mechanical problems. Now the upside of this is that he gets to SEE D.C. where he has never been and that's cool, and the downside is that he is there instead of here when I go into surgery Thursday to have my gallbladder out. Lucky for me my mom was planning on coming to sit there with me. Andy was going to take me there and pick me up, so now I'll drive myself there after dropping off Olivia and Vincent at my visiting teacher's house and my mom will hang out there with me and bring me back when I get the green light. Elizabeth is hanging out at Andy's mom's house this whole week having grandparent time, so I didn't have to make any arrangements for her. It's an in and out laprascopic surgery, but they said I would be there a minimum of six hours. Andy and our home teacher gave me a priesthood blessing on Sunday because it was the only time we could do it. Now I'm so glad we thought of it then.
If you want to know more about what the gallbladder does, check out this website. It gives a quick synopsis of what the gallbladder does and all that.
Just so you know where it is...Mine is FULL of stones and isn't doing it's job anyway.
I have heard a lot of good reports of other people who have had their gallbladder out, so I'm not all that concerned about it. I just don't want to have to worry about having another gallstone attack. I'll let you know how I'm doing.

Oregon Coast

We went to the Oregon Coast to camp for a family reunion with Andy's dad's side of the family. Several of the other family members rented houses, slept in their trailer, or stayed in hotels, but we (along with one Aunt and Uncle, one cousin with her two kids, and Sara and David with their two kids) camped at Cape Lookout near Tillamook, Oregon.
We had a great time and our kids slept like rocks! They woke up at 6:30am each morning, but because we all went to bed early, it wasn't that big of a deal. We had plenty of time to squeeze in the most fun possible because we had an early start on the day.Andy had to stop in Umatilla to do some work Wednesday on the way down, so the rest of us ate our breakfast there and then went to a park that I played at when I was little and lived there. It ended up being about 2 1/2 hours and then we were on our way to the coast.
Olivia pushing Vincent on the swing.Elizabeth and Olivia loved the merry go round, but were sad that they couldn't go on the teeter totters because they had big puddles underneath them from the sprinklers.Olivia at the campsite.Andy and Elizabeth setting up the tent.We met up with Andy's parents and his sister Suzie's family for pizza and we stopped by the Cape Mears lighthouse on the way (Andy likes to drive on different roads) back to the campsite. We went on a little, but very steep hike down to the lighthouse and back up.Our kids had a lot of fun playing with Andy's cousin's kids. They brought PetShops and the supplies to make friendship bracelets.Thursday Andy and Elizabeth went on a long five mile hike in the mud with part of the family while I stayed at the beach with Olivia and Vincent with some of the other family.
Since I didn't go on the hike and knew I'd want the camera at the beach with Olivia and Vincent, I stole this picture from Andy's cousin, Kim, who did go on the hike.Olivia by the beach. She wrote her name in the sand.Vincent liked the sand, but he didn't like the water much. Vincent was doing this in the sand. I think he wanted to feel like a turtle. The video is short, but if you don't want to watch it, he's putting his forehead on the sand and piling up the sand on his back before sanding up to get it off of him. Then he'd do it again....and again.

Grandpa George came over to help the kids build a sand castle. The kids didn't have much attention span, so this was about as big as it got.Andy and Elizabeth joined up with us about three hours later and then Andy took the girls back down to the water. After they got cleaned up, we went over to the place Andy's parents had their trailer hooked up and ate dinner with Andy's two sisters, Suzie and Sara, and their families. When we were done with dinner we stopped by the house Andy's uncle rented to visit with them.
Friday we went to the WWII Air Museum in Tillamook and then over to the Tillamook Cheese Factory to watch them make cheese and to eat some ice cream.
Elizabeth and Olivia in the front of a helicopter that was set up for kids to play in.
Andy and Vincent giving thumbs up in an airplane.
Our kids by a cool helicopter.
The three kids at Tillamook Cheese Factory cows.Look! I was there too. Andy and I at the beach.
Olivia loved looking all over for seashells. She was darting all over.
Andy and Elizabeth playing in the sand.
Elizabeth went out with Anna and Rachel (Kim's kids) in the surf and got soaked.
Then she played in the sand. She and Olivia needed showers badly after this!
We went to dinner at Andy's uncle's rental house with everyone and then came back for s'mores. Elizabeth looks like she wasn't enjoying this, but she was. We told kid-scary stories and visited.
This is the place the girls liked to play in next to our campsites. Anna and Rachel were so good with our girls.
Saturday we packed everything up and headed out. We decided to go to the aquarium in Newport on the way home (the very long way home...)
Elizabeth and Olivia touching some sea creatures. They touched a snake too.
My family (except for me).

Then we stopped at Crown Point too.We got home at 9:30pm when the unpacking began. We put the kids to bed and I had to run to the store to get more grocery essentials and then I started on the endless laundry.
We had a fun trip and our kids did too.