This book is very interesting. I get a kick out of listening to him on the radio and watching Beck on TV. It is nice to hear someone who comes from the other side of things for once. Whether a person disagrees with him politically, he is the other voice you don't hear. He is also REALLY funny! I can't count the many times I laughed in this book. I also was opened to some pretty scary things like the fact that oil will continue to rise and one day disappear, the terrorist wars, illegal immigration, etc. Things that made me really realize how far gone this country is and how crazy the world has become. He is very eye opening, funny and this is a book I would totally recommend.

House Hunting

You heard right. We are house hunting. Well, let's say Condo/TOWNhouse hunting. We can't afford an actual house, but we are tired of renting and not building equity. Plus, we get kicked out of here in a couple months, or Robert has to take a class he doesn't need just to stay here until he is done in December. But who wants to move in the cold winter? Not I! So our goal is to be out of here before then. Especially because spending another winter in these cramped quarters is not really appealing.

We have an agent now and have met with him and are working on all the bugs of the home buying process. We have seen one place so far. The area was great, the outside beautiful- the inside, not so much. The stuff needed to be fixed, but that wasn't the issue as much as floor plan. I don't really like a closet for a second bathroom RIGHT into the kitchen, no storage or tripping over my kitchen table IN the kitchen while trying to cook. That's fine, on with the search. Surprisingly there are a few potentials in our tiny price range. And the hope is still that in a few weeks or so, the promotions we have been sweating over will finally just give us a yes or no. We keep praying and we will have to see what happens. In the mean time, the search goes on.

You don't think this is a little out of our league do you? Come on, you can't see us being able to afford it? I can totally picture us in a manor house just like this one!

Party!

Who says when you are sick with a cold and a cough, stuck in the house and have laundry to fold that you can't have a party at the same time? Emily and Lindsey have been stuck in the house with horrid coughs. We have been inside the house for days and my laundry was piling up. Emily was so sick of being couped up while the kids in the neighborhood are running through the sprinklers and having BBQs right outside our window. I need to fold laundry and she needs attention. Well, heck, who says you can't combine both needs?! So when the baby went down for her nap (this is often Emily and Mommy time and I try to think of something fun for her or for both of us) I told her we would have a party while we folded the laundry and ate a treat.


I look in the fridge and pantry only to find NO CHOCOLATE in the house! Oh yeah, I don't keep chocolate in the house or I would be a million lbs by now. No ice cream, same reason. So basically no treats. Say, we have canned peaches AND whipped cream. Peaches and cream- absolutely! Now for a girls movie.

My girls are never too young to introduce girly movies to.



Emily really had fun and folded all of the wash cloths, her underwear and sorted out the socks for me. Thanks so much Emily for a fun day together! I hate it when they are sick and I am stuck inside too, but once in awhile it is nice to build some memories together.

Emily's Ballet Performance

Emily was amazingly good and I know I am her mother and probably feel some bias towards my child, but she did SUCH a good job! She danced and never stopped smiling once. She had very good stage presence. At the beginning she looked at the other girls and said, "Hands on hips and SMILE!" When she twirled she made sure her face turned so she would still be able to smile at the audience. It was so cute! We loved it and are glad that she enjoyed the end. Whatever she wants to do we will support her. Our sweet little
girl!

A Tribute to Fathers

I wanted to do a tribute to the Fathers in my life. My dad is a good father. He loved and taught with humor and he worked really hard for his family. He has been very successful in his business endeavors and has always done really well in whatever he sets his mind too. He taught us the value of work, being honest workers and a job well done. He has a bark that is worse than his bite and he is a loving grandfather to my kids. He is not perfect and I always knew this, but he is my dad. Even through his imperfections, I know he loves me and I am grateful for him.


Robert is an amazing dad! I have never seen anyone love their children as much as he loves Emily and Lindsey. He is very involved in their lives. He comes home and scoops them up and loves them and plays with them. He talks to them and listens to them. When Emily had her ballet performance, which I will blog about once I can post pictures, he got teary eyed and had to leave the room. He said Emily melted his heart with her sweetness. The second we had our Emily he looked at me and said, "Let's do this again!" That is how much he has enjoyed being a father. He always said he would love it to hear his children call him Daddy. And they do! They run to him the second he gets home. He is their hero. And mine too.

The Sickies

We have been having the sickies here. Lindsey woke up with a high fever Thursday morning and was fighting it all day. A couple days earlier Robert wasn't feeling well and while I was taking care of the baby I started to feel awful! A completely unrelated sickness from the baby's. No fever, just a lot of stomach flu and achy dizziness. I felt terrible all day and even worse at night.


I try to discourage a lot of television watching in the day, but when it comes to sick days I am really glad to have it. Poor Emily just had to deal with a sick sister who couldn't play and a mommy who couldn't get off the couch. She played with toys by herself very well for two hours and then watched movies the rest of the time. Robert has been working and studying in between his bouts of not feeling well. Hopefully it doesn't last too much longer.

My Kids

My sister was tagged with a cute idea to say interesting facts about her kids using the letters of their names. So I will be trying it too.



E- Energetic- Emily could bounce and jump and sing all day long. She has endless amounts of energy and could play outside from dawn to dusk if I let her. The other kids get tired and beg to go in, not Emily, she has way too much energy for one little 4 year old.

M- Mature- She is very mature for her age. I often have people ask, "How old is she again?" She loves playing with her older cousins because she seems to be right on level with them. She asks very deep and thinking questions about space, the ocean, death, heaven, God, etc. Things that I wouldn't think she would understand enough to discuss.

I- Intelligent- Emily loves to learn. Everyday she says she is doing some school and wants to read to me- and is doing amazingly well too. She is reading words like "sacrament" and "baptized" all by herself and reading entire children's stories to herself. She loves to know facts and when she was 3 she wanted to memorize the names of all the planets. She has since forgotten, but those kinds of things are what she loves to do.

L- Laugh- She loves to laugh and giggle and make silly jokes. She is a lot like her daddy who loves to joke around. They have a lot of fun together because of this. She also makes everyone else around her laugh and wanted to add that she is comic relief. She is just hilarious with the things she does and says.

Y- YIKES!- is what I have said often enough when Emily goes to "helping" with the baby. She is really a big help, but when she grabs the baby by her arm and yanks her or stuffs food in her mouth. I have to tell her, "Thanks for the help Emily, but I think Mommy is going to do that."




L- Loving- Lindsey IS very loving. She has a tender heart and if she thinks anyone is getting hurt it really makes her sad. Robert and Emily were tickling me and I was screaming and joking and she really thought I was getting hurt and she started to cry and try to get them off of her mommy. It happens all the time and is really sweet.

I- Imp- that pretty much can sum it ALL up! She gets into everything. When she is about to do something she knows she shouldn't, she looks back at you to get a reaction. She messes and runs away, gets dirty- typical 16 month old with an extra amount of impiness.

N- NOISY- She is SO noisy! She loves to scream at the top of her lungs, mostly when she is mad. She is loud and shreaky and is going to break my eardrums one day.

D- Daredevil- She climbs everything and sticks her foot out until she falls. She is not afraid at all! Emily was very timid to do things like that, Lindsey is not the same.

S- Sweet- She is very sweet and cuddly. I get kissed and cuddled all the time by this baby. She has always loved to hug everyone.

E- Eat- This is for the times when she is a bottomless pit and I cannot seem to feed her enough or fast enough. And for the times when she hates everything I give her and will only eat when she walks around and comes back for whatever is in my hand.

Y- Yummy- She is so squishy and I just love to tickle and eat her up. She has the softest baby skin and is so deliciously baby cute!

Dentist Update

Oh, so frustrating! When I get there they tell me she should be fine even with a GIANT chip in her front tooth, but if I want they can put a filling on it so it will look closer to the other tooth. They talk to my insurance and then come in and tell me that Lindsey is not covered. So if I decide to do it the filling would be $145 instead of $75. That's lovely! Well, I call Robert and he is furious since he put her on in January. We decide to do it anyway. It's a long time for a kid to look funny with a broken tooth. I lay her on my lap and ask if they can sand down the hard edges first to see what it would look like. Lindsey FREAKED out! This is not a pediatric dentist and they don't have the right stuff for a 16 month old.

Also, apparently they are dropping my dental insurance in August. Nice. Thanks for informing me. They don't like my kind of insurance and "encourage" me to go with the other insurance option. Umm... no, the reason we HAVE this option is it covers 90% of filling costs and is MUCH cheaper per month. So we will be switching dentists. Anyway, after Lindsey's freak out I decide she is not going to allow us to go any further. The problem with her being so young is unless she is sedated some what she won't be able to keep the filling dry enough for it to work. I decided, better to wait until I get my insurance worked out, a referral to a pediatric dentist and either wait until she is a little older or until we have some medication to make her a little bit more likely to handle it. It does look better with the sharp edges sanded down, but it is REALLY noticeable and makes me so sad to see it. Her little round baby teeth have always been SO adorable and it hurts to see it half gone.Oh, and apparently Robert talked to our insurance at work- she IS covered! They said "Oh, sorry, our mistake." Thanks, that would have been nice to know AT the dentist's office!

Chipped Baby Teeth

So sad! My camera is broken or I would show it. Lindsey fell off the playground today. She stands there where there is an open space in the playground and puts her foot out and says, "Mommy!" to try and get my attention. I run up, save her and then she does it again. So it was the 10th time she had done it today and then she fell right on her face. I found her in the wood chips crying. I checked her thoroughly, especially her mouth to make sure she wasn't bleeding and nothing. Well, she woke from her nap crying and when I came to get her I noticed one of her front teeth and the one next to it are chipped. The one next, not TOO bad, the one in the front is terrible! Poor baby! I am very sad! She has the cutest little baby teeth too. It looks like a crescent moon shape was taken out of the bottom of the tooth. She has a dentist appointment tomorrow to hopefully sand the sharp edges down and see if she may need some sealant to prevent cavities. I hope she cooperates well enough to have it done. Mommy is more sad than she is, she doesn't even know. Poor thing! It is so hard to be an adventurous baby. She runs up the stairs in the court, she falls off playgrounds, tries to run out to the parking lot. I get a work out every time we go out!

Wild Cottontail R-r-r-rabbit

I was out last night late in my apartment court and suddenly heard rustling in the bushes. I was startled by the cutest little brown desert cottontail bunny rabbit. He or she was SO adorable. Fluffy and soft. I snuck up close and stared at it. He/she nestled into the grass, realizing I wasn't a threat and munched the grass. It's ears perked up when it heard another noise and off it ran and stopped. I followed it for about 10 minutes and then let it be. It was very cute and of course I would never have touched it. I don't really like wild bunny bites. It did look really soft and cuddly though. One of the great things about living here in the summer- yucky cinderblock apartment aside- is the nature that is right here. We even have the zoo right down the street. I love it! We get deer right in our "backyard" and cute little bunny rabbits. What more could one ask for then to be near the city, but up on the mountain enough to enjoy wild life?

Improv Everywhere

My friend Cami had a cool video on her blog. It was really funny and at the end it has the website www.improveverywhere.com. I checked it out and apparently it has been going for a LONG time. 2002 I think was the date on one of them. It's a group of people who create improv situations. They are really creative and definitely something that wastes a lot of time, but looks like so much fun. Check it out and enjoy!