Over the past several months, Michael has been sick and taken days off to stay home. Generally, the days after he goes back to work, both girls will ask the question "Why?" when I tell them that Daddy is at work. I thought I did a good job being basic and simple, "Daddy is at work to earn money so we can buy things." (In my brain, "things" of course is food, rent, electricty, gas, etc.)
So this was our dinner prayer on Tuesday night, offered by Grace:
"Dear Heavenly Father, we're thankful for this day. We thank you for our food. We thank you that Daddy goes to work. We thank you that Daddy goes to work so we can buy stuff at Wal-mart. Please bless our mommies and our daddies and our brothers and sisters. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."
A child's mind...
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
Gratitude
There is nothing like waking up two mornings in a row to issues with your water that makes a person sooo grateful that 1) I live in 2008, 2) we can afford decent housing & water, and 3) that we have a great landlord.
So yesterday morning we woke to our pipes being frozen. Our water pipes, the neighbor's pipes, our water heaters, furnaces & the washer/dryer are all in a little room that is accessible only from the back of the house. The washer has been broken, so the Landlord fixed it on Saturday. Unfortunately, he didn't get the door closed tightly. So, on one of the coldest nights of the year, the door blew open, and our pipes being the closest to the door, froze a bit. Fear of the pipes bursting and flooding into our basement duplex filled our thoughts. Thankfully the said Landlord came shortly after we called him at 7:30 in the morning with his propane heater and unfroze them.
Done with the water issue, right? Not so fast.
Over the past several months, we've noticed that one of the hot water heaters leaked water from the top (turns out it is our hot water heater). We made mention it to the Landlord and when he return from FL last week, he came to fix it. Done, he says. Ha! This morning my darling husband took an ice cold shower because the blasted thing completely quit working. I don't know the challenging workings of a hot water heater, but I do know my Landlord's phone number... I waited until 9:15 to call this morning. And being the good guy he is (or that he likes to keep such great tenants) he was here about an hour later to begin a day's worth of work and put in one new hot water heater.
So we now have water and it's hot.
But all of this makes me so grateful that I didn't have to go outside, collect snow, come inside, start a fire, melt the snow, make our food with the snow water, wash the dishes and end my day by taking a sponge bath, with the now cold water.
And I am very grateful that I have followed my husband's promptings and have helped begin to create our 72-hour water supply. With the water shut off for most of the day, and all of our family at work or gone, I was still able to wash out some necessary cups and clean some hands.
I thank the Heavens for modern conveniences and for following the Prophet's counsel.
And for a great Landlord.
So yesterday morning we woke to our pipes being frozen. Our water pipes, the neighbor's pipes, our water heaters, furnaces & the washer/dryer are all in a little room that is accessible only from the back of the house. The washer has been broken, so the Landlord fixed it on Saturday. Unfortunately, he didn't get the door closed tightly. So, on one of the coldest nights of the year, the door blew open, and our pipes being the closest to the door, froze a bit. Fear of the pipes bursting and flooding into our basement duplex filled our thoughts. Thankfully the said Landlord came shortly after we called him at 7:30 in the morning with his propane heater and unfroze them.
Done with the water issue, right? Not so fast.
Over the past several months, we've noticed that one of the hot water heaters leaked water from the top (turns out it is our hot water heater). We made mention it to the Landlord and when he return from FL last week, he came to fix it. Done, he says. Ha! This morning my darling husband took an ice cold shower because the blasted thing completely quit working. I don't know the challenging workings of a hot water heater, but I do know my Landlord's phone number... I waited until 9:15 to call this morning. And being the good guy he is (or that he likes to keep such great tenants) he was here about an hour later to begin a day's worth of work and put in one new hot water heater.
So we now have water and it's hot.
But all of this makes me so grateful that I didn't have to go outside, collect snow, come inside, start a fire, melt the snow, make our food with the snow water, wash the dishes and end my day by taking a sponge bath, with the now cold water.
And I am very grateful that I have followed my husband's promptings and have helped begin to create our 72-hour water supply. With the water shut off for most of the day, and all of our family at work or gone, I was still able to wash out some necessary cups and clean some hands.
I thank the Heavens for modern conveniences and for following the Prophet's counsel.
And for a great Landlord.
Friday, February 08, 2008
Our week at a glance, but looong read!
Michael and I decided we needed to be in more pictures, especially me. So I randomly take these pictures of us together. This one was on my birthday, and if I do say so, we look pretty dang good. :-) Not a terrible holding at arms length picture.Niki pointed out to me this morning that I hadn't updated my blog in a long time, especially since I use to update it almost twice a week, if not once. So, I thought I'd reflect back on our week and maybe even look at the week ahead. (Since I probably won't blog again for a bit!)
Well, with all of the snow and kids being sick, we've missed Momschool for several weeks. We had school last Thursday with the Letter L and then again this week with the Letter M. I taught this week and we had fun. There were only 3 girls there, plus Audrey, so things went relatively smoothly. We did a lot of music making, with the wonderful instruments that RahRah & Poppa Dan gave the girls for Christmas, with permission of course. I think for all 4 of the girls, that was the highlight of school this week. Yesterday we did some singing, several songs with hand motions I thought the girls might now. Audrey was the loudest singer of them all! She definitely loves to sing - I did mention about how she sings the opening credits and commericals on PBS Kids haven't I? We watch too much tv.
Saturday night, Michael finally ate his Chocolate Mousse Cake from Olive Garden I had brought back for him from our Jolley Girls Night Out, for Susie's & my birthdays. This picture actually shows Michael eating it almost all by himself, with a few bites to the girls. It was hilarious because they would ask for a bite, he'd give them one and then take one for himself. Of course, my duaghters thought that the next bite would be for them too! You'd think he wasn't sharing it at all from this picture! I don't know where they've gotten their love of chocolate....Sunday night we had a new couple in our ward over to play "Ticket to Ride" at the same time the girls went to bed. Not as successful as I thought it would be because we had taken the white knob off of Grace's door, so she was able to open it herself... It has since gone back on and we'll try again when she's 4. But it was a nice evening with them.
Our washer isn't working and I don't know when the Landlord is on fixing it. we spent the day out at JuJu & Poppa Royal's yesterday (bless them!) along with Annie, Lisa & Addison, doing laundry. It ended up being a nice day - not to hectic I hope! :) The night before we had taken dinner out there, done a couple of loads of laundry & the girls & Michael went sledding. Grace loved it! Audrey thought it was too cold, so she went down once and came back in.
Grace was measured for her dance outfit for the studio's recital at the beginning of June. It will be June 7-8 and a big thing. Tickets were about $12-15/piece last year and are estimated to be about the same. They also started practicing the routine - it is a good thing they have 4 months! But it is way cute to see these little girls actually dancing. And if I'm allowed to toot my own daughter's horn, she follows the directons of her teacher pretty well and about 95% of the time has the correct position when it's called out! :) She likes it a lot! I wonder if she'll stick with it.
Well, that's roughly been our week. Michael's continued to work hard, Audrey comes up with funny things almost everyday (but of course I can't remember anything at the moment) and Grace is becoming a young girl. Heaven help me.
OH!! And "Bubba" started really moving last week - great excitement for me! Side note: "Bubba" is a fun name the girls and I've started calling the baby. It is not at all what we will call him once he arrives!
Jamie's Birthday
So about two weeks ago, I reached a milestone - the birthday before you turn 30! It was a really easy day. I went to Iowa City to pickup some maternity clothes and presents from my mom with my girls, Susie & Jakey. We then went to the mall, where I really thought we'd do some great shopping with my birthday money but ended up spending quarters and dollars on the Carousel and the kiddy rides. It was fun though and the kids were pretty good (side note: if you decide you want to take my girls into Claire's, you must be willing to buy things. Outcome not so great if you don't.)
Then we came home and I made dinner - a wonderful Kraft recipe I've discovered - easy Chicken Cordon Bleu. I love it! It's good tasting and easy to make. I had my wonderful chocolate cake with chocolate frosting & cherries, just the way I like it. Royal & Julie and last minute, Darcy & Eric came for cake and it was just pretty laid back. The way all birthdays (except the really big ones) should be! :)
I also want to show wonderful pictures of how big I'm getting. This is me at 19.5 weeks - almost half way through. Do I just look chubby or pregnant? Of course, this is after dinner, soda and cake. Happy Birthday to me!
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Seriously!?!
So our week has been a little busy. I've been trying to get back into our routine after the girls' being sick and then the Holidays. So mostly I've just been trying to get out of the house. Every morning when either I finally get dressed or get Audrey dressed (b/c we all know Grace never gets dressed, until the last possible moment), Audrey asks where we are going. As if the only reason we get dressed is because we are going somewhere. Okay, for the last 2 months, that has been the reason. That or Daddy was coming home. Anyways, that's my excuse for not blogging. I'm too busy getting our family dressed. :o)
We had our ultrasound on Friday morning and were really pleased to know that our child is healthly, the heart has it's 4 chambers and is beating well and the spine is all long and good. And we also discovered that apparently, our children tell me when they are ready to come to our family and to Michael with what they are. That's right folks, 3 out of 3 times, he's been right and I've been a little disappointed. With the girls, I knew it was a boy and was just so excited for him to come! Thankfully, both times, Michael mentions he thinks it is going to be a girl, about the week before the ultrasound, so I'm not crushingly disappointed. :o) This time, he's been saying all along, it's a BOY. I thought I was doing a good job of not really caring either way or thinking it was one way or the other. Apparently, I was wrong. I so thought that this child was going to be a girl. I could just picture the 3 of them in their cute Christmas/Easter/Summer dresses...
I'm still a little blown away that we are having a boy. Hopefully I don't sound ungrateful - I just can't believe that it is a BOY! But, truly, either way, I'm just so happy that everything looks good! Thank goodness! However, because I'm still pretty early in the pregnancy, the pictures were clear but not great ones. And I'm not putting his little boy parts on the internet. So you only get the best of the monsters. :0) I'm sure he'll look different when he arrives.
This picture was drawn during Grace's first day of Primary. From left to right, it is Grace, Mommy (the little round circle on me is the baby) and Audrey (barely seeable). I've brightened the drawing, so it will show up. But aren't we a cute group?! Today's picture was Grace, Daddy & Mommy, but I can't find it at the moment. I didn't realize that she could draw people! :0)
We had our ultrasound on Friday morning and were really pleased to know that our child is healthly, the heart has it's 4 chambers and is beating well and the spine is all long and good. And we also discovered that apparently, our children tell me when they are ready to come to our family and to Michael with what they are. That's right folks, 3 out of 3 times, he's been right and I've been a little disappointed. With the girls, I knew it was a boy and was just so excited for him to come! Thankfully, both times, Michael mentions he thinks it is going to be a girl, about the week before the ultrasound, so I'm not crushingly disappointed. :o) This time, he's been saying all along, it's a BOY. I thought I was doing a good job of not really caring either way or thinking it was one way or the other. Apparently, I was wrong. I so thought that this child was going to be a girl. I could just picture the 3 of them in their cute Christmas/Easter/Summer dresses...I'm still a little blown away that we are having a boy. Hopefully I don't sound ungrateful - I just can't believe that it is a BOY! But, truly, either way, I'm just so happy that everything looks good! Thank goodness! However, because I'm still pretty early in the pregnancy, the pictures were clear but not great ones. And I'm not putting his little boy parts on the internet. So you only get the best of the monsters. :0) I'm sure he'll look different when he arrives.
This picture was drawn during Grace's first day of Primary. From left to right, it is Grace, Mommy (the little round circle on me is the baby) and Audrey (barely seeable). I've brightened the drawing, so it will show up. But aren't we a cute group?! Today's picture was Grace, Daddy & Mommy, but I can't find it at the moment. I didn't realize that she could draw people! :0)
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