Moving forward

We listen to this kids nursery songs in the car all of the time. So much so, that Annadele knows many of the songs by heart. I think she is adorable singing Daisy Daisy. What surprised me is that when she sings this in the car she for some unknown reason she will usually say "a bicycle built for Wally". I don't know why but when I recorded her she actually said two, and now corrects her dad when he says Wally.
We finally had our interview with the Stake President regarding my cancellation and Mark's clearance. It seemed to go really well. He asked if we supported each other, and loved each other. He even asked me if Mark was abusive, but I guess in this day in age he has to ask. He said the last one he did took 40 days. So if we don't hear from him, or receive our own letters in the mail, we are supposed to follow up mid May. If all goes well, we are tentatively planning to do it on our anniversary which is June 9Th. How cool would that be to be able to get sealed on our wedding day in the Las Vegas temple. It is even a Saturday. All I can say is it is in the Lords hands, but I really, really hope it can happen. If we are denied, then we have to wait another year before we can apply again. I am praying we don't have to wait, but again it is in the Lord's hands. I have to trust that he is in control.
Other than that we had a uneventful week, or at least I don't remember much going on.
Sarah was trying to use the blanket as a turban. She said she doesn't know how the Arabs do it. But I suspect they don't use a thick blanket. Alex is crying. She was crying on and off all night driving her mother crazy. I don't know what Mark is trying to do. We will leave it at that. I love my funny family.

Van, and reminice

Our van has been leaking some fluid since we had it repaired back in November. I decided since I needed to have a lube and oil done on it that I would have them look at the leaks also. Apparently, we had some hoses going from the transmission to the radiator that were bad. So $330 later it is now fixed. I am glad it is not leaking any more, but the car still has a check engine light on. It seems like it is always on so I don't know if I should be concerned or not. The van seems to be more of a money pit than I care for, but I am not the one in control of the money so I do what I have to to get by. I guess you can say at least I don't have a car payment on top of all the repairs, but I wonder if I had a car payment instead of paying repairs if it would equal out? I guess for now I will never know.
Our progress with our cancellations and sealing are inching along. Mark had to do some work at church, and was able to talk with the Bishop. So we found out he forgot to give us the name and number of the Stake clerk. Aaaahhhh!!! Mark was able to talk to the guy and get us an appointment. The soonest he could see us is March 25Th at 2:00pm. But at least it is a step in the right direction.
Mark just reminded me that it was 6 years ago today, March 18Th, that we met on that fateful hike. I still remember hiking in Red Rock talking to him as we are heading back to our cars, and it starts snowing. A rarity for Las Vegas. We had a great conversation, but I couldn't tell what he looked liked. He was wearing a hat, sunglasses, a long sleeve shirt, and shorts. He was carrying a staff that I thought was for hiking. Later to find out, it is a martial arts staff. I was wearing a plain white T-shirt, and a pair of jeans. He thought I was the best looking woman there, but he tried not to show it. He was too nervous to ask me out on a date, but got a group of us together to go try different ethnic foods. I think it was a week later I got to see him for the first time over Indian food. I was not interested. So it took a little while but here we are 6 years later married with 2 beautiful daughters.

I'm 3 in March

So we have been telling Annadele she will turn 3 in March. March is here and she finally turned three. She is such a sweet heart. She didn't care about a big party or anything. Of course I have already decided she will not have a friend party until she is 5. I don't think it is necessary, and after last years fiasco I just am not up for it. But I think she had a nice day. Adele flew in from New York Thursday evening. She asked me if I wanted to go shopping, and of course I said yes. I don't get many opportunities to get out of the house and especially with out any kids. We were looking for somethings for her new house, and I was able to get a couple of stools to use in the bathroom to help Annadele in the potty training process (so hopefully I won't have to be there every time.) I had looked in Walmart and hadn't found anything, so I was pretty happy to find them all cutiesed up and everything at Home goods. We also got a few balloons just because I know Annadele and Alex would like them.
We started the day at IHOP. We had brought in the presents for Annadele to unwrap while we waited for our food. She loved everything she got. She got a Tiana dress up from Sarah. A collection of princess barbie dolls from me and Mark, and dress up ballerina skirt from Alex. She loved everything she got, and was very good when we told her she had to wait to go home to open the barbies and try on her dress up stuff. The staff even sang Happy Birthday to her. I wasn't expecting that. I know they do that at other restaurants, but it was a nice surprise at IHOP. She even got a bowl of ice cream that I think she took one bite of. Oh well, it was the thought that counts. It was a pretty low key day. Dad and Mom were trying to clean and organize their new place since mom was only going to be here a few days. We took Sarah out of school so she could be around and enjoy the day. Mark had a meeting that night so we decided to have an early dinner at Red Robin so he could be there. It was a little crazy with my two little ones. With Alex not feeling well, she didn't even want to eat which isn't like her. The table in front of us had two kids who got balloons, and that is all she cared about. The funny thing is that Annadele had said she wanted a hamburger for dinner, thus Red Robin, and when we got there she ordered Mac n' Cheese. Got a love it.
Mark went to his meeting, and the rest of us went to the park for a little bit. It was great to move around after a heavy meal. The kids always love the slides, and if they get an opportunity the swings. We got home, and I put Alex to bed. We sang Happy Birthday to her, and had some cookie cake. Sarah had promised Annadele she would paint her face. So Annadele put on her Tiana costume, and got her face painted. It was a great end to a good day.








So now that her birthday is over Annadele keeps telling me it is someone elses birthday now. I think she is worried we still have all of this cookie cake, and it is not her birthday any more. And what are we going to do about it. Slowly it is getting eaten. The bad part is that is mainly me. I think it will go in the garbage sooner than later. Then she asks me who's birthday it is today. I keep telling her Breanna's is on the 30Th.
Our new find this week is that they just opened up a WinCo foods here. Mark went on Monday, and then he took me grocery shopping on Tuesday night while dad watched the kids. It was like a kid in a candy store. I couldn't believe all of the bins of food they had. The cool find for us is that they had dutch process cocoa. We have been looking for it in the stores, and can't find it. We were thinking we might have to special order it over the internet or make a trip to Hersey Penn. to find it. We even went back on Saturday to show his mom the store and pick up some steaks for Sunday dinner. I don't think it is a store I will go to every week, but some of the deals are worth a trip once a month.

Dance, dance, tv

So I didn't post last week mainly because I was so exhausted. I think from Monday night to Friday night I had a week of insomnia. I know on Tuesday morning I had agreed to watch Alisa Jenkins kids while she went to a doctors appointment. I don't know why I worry about these things, but I do. It worried me a little to be watching her 8 month old and 3 year old on top of having my two little ones. Her 3 year old is a little bit of a handful and I feel like I have to watch her like a hawk. She likes to get into things she isn't supposed to, and she can be a little aggressive toward Annadele. I know while they were playing on the bunk bed she pulled Annadele off the ladder, and hurt her. So some of my worry is justified. All in all they are pretty good, but I have already forgotten how grabby little ones can be. Ethan the 8 month old was pulling mail off the table, and even managed to get the lid off of a water bottle and spill most of its contents on the carpet. Thank heaven it was only water. But Alisa is pregnant again, and it looks like there are some complications. The doctor had her go to a specialist the next day to get some testing done. Her husband is out of town, and she needed some help. I was glad to help out, but I defiantly am in no hurry to have any more kids.
I don't know if worrying about taking the extra kids spurred insomnia, but basically I didn't get much sleep all week. I would go to bed, and just lay there. My mind wouldn't turn off. I think the earliest I got to bed was 2:30AM. I watched a couple of movies. I played way too much spider solitaire. I listened to a couple of general conference talks. The only thing that makes me mad is that I didn't spend my time better. Why couldn't I start organizing the office, or clean the kitchen. I did think about cleaning the kitchen but then I was worried I would wake up Tony (my father-in-law). I am just glad it is over, and now I am just dealing with restless leg. Although I think because of last week, it has been bad this week. One good night of sleep in a week is not a good thing.
So I got the crazy idea that I wanted to go dancing. When your old and married there aren't a lot of good options out there. So I heard them announce the Singles conference going on, and I talked Mark into crashing the dance. I figured it would be safe enough since there are always lots of people who attend and even people from out of state. It has been almost 5 years, so I figured we could attend with out a lot of attention. The only bad thing is that I didn't have any of the information. I tried to look for it on line and found nothing. Even the singles hot line number just rang and rang. But I knew which stake was hosting the event, and so we drove there because usually it is held at the stake center. We get there and no one is there. We chance on someone going into the church who was able to direct us to the high school near by. So we didn't get there til 10:45 pm. We go down this hall where we see lights and music. I don't think much of it until I look around and only see a bunch of old people. The music was bad, and I just told Mark thank you for taking me from this. But I was thinking, "where are all of the people are age?" This just doesn't seem right. There weren't a lot of people, and it just seemed odd. So at 11pm we decided to walk around a little bit, and found a hall way with some people hanging out. We walk down the hall, and there is a gym with a door. This is where the majority of the people are and the good music. But we get in the room and they announce they will have a closing pray and then one more song for the night. What!?! I just got here. I haven't even taken off my jacket, or started working up a sweat. Are you kidding me. Needless to say it would have been nice of the people taking our money to let us know it was almost over. That and I didn't exercise because I was planning on getting some at the dance. Aaaaahhhh! I guess you can say at least I got slow dance with my hubby, and have some time with him. But I am still annoyed.
Saturday, Sarah had a dance recital. She has been taking classes at the YMCA near her house. Annadele loved it. She can't wait to go to dance classes for her now. In fact on Sunday, she asked me if she could go to dance class now. Jen and her mom thought it was the worst dance recital Sarah has ever been in. Which is partly true. I just look at it this way that a lot of these kids have probably never had dance before, and this was there chance. I was shocked by how many of them were obese, but glad that at least they are taking dance. It just brought back so many memories of dance recitals in our home. I just sympathised with the teacher, but I couldn't tell if it was the dancers or the teacher. Maybe a combination of both, but I know on one part of the dance they added solos on Monday and performed on Saturday. Not a lot of time to have something down. Sarah is dropping dance, and now will start gymnastics and piano lessons.
I finally crashed Saturday night, and went to bed at 9 pm. I woke up at 2 am to kick a couple of magic players out of our house and order Mark to bed. And Sunday I went to bed early again. I think I just dragged all week because of the lack of sleep from the week before. What a vicious cycle this is.
Not a lot happened this week. I did finally start cleaning the office, but that was because we changed cable companies. I knew they needed to do some work in the office, and it was a pig stye. It is like my junk drawer that you just throw everything in and then walk away. The room still needs a lot of work but at least you can see wood on both desk. Mark needs to go through a lot of papers so who knows if that will ever happen. At least when the Century Link guy was here it wasn't so embarrassing.

Valentines

Mark and I had predetermined that we weren't going to give each other gifts for Valentines. Although he did buy me flowers on Saturday, but he said it was because I was sick and not for Valentines. I felt bad because I didn't even make him a card or anything. But our play group decided at the last minute to exchange Valentines. It was late at night when I found out we were going to do this, so I decided to just make some cards on the computer. I taped a couple of dum dum suckers to the card. I thought it looked cute. That and I didn't have to buy anything. My kids don't really like suckers, and these we have had since Halloween. I was glad I had done it. I arrived a little late so Alex could finish her morning nap, and when we got there one of the little girls was so excited to share her Valentine's with us. She ran and met the stroller, and gave my girls their Valentine. I thought it was so cute. My girls didn't know what to think of it. They were more interested in getting to the play ground. So I ended up handing out theirs to the other kids. But some of the older girls were glad to receive their cards.
It was a cold day that day, and I think we brought home more than just Valentines. Both of my girls got a cold this week. Alex has gotten it the worst. She has such a drippy nose. I felt so bad I even went out and got her the tissues with lotion in them because I have had to wipe her little nose so often.
I decided I need to document some of the things my girl are doing and saying. First of all Sarah. She was student of the month this month for Academic. She is the best in her class at math. She didn't even have math homework the other day because she had mastered the technique. She is off the chart at reading. She was also awarded student of the month for her art work. She had a school sock hop on Friday. They had a hoola hoop contest, and she was one of the last 4 standing. She was awesome. They stopped it at 4 because they just kept going and going.
Annadele is growing bigger every day. We are still trying to potty train her. She is doing pretty good when it come to going pee, but not once has she tried to go # 2 in the potty chair. I defiantly remember why I don't do cloth diapers. Her daddy has taught her to call me "beautiful mommy". Her big sister has taught her " Oh Snap!", and "like a boss", and some play ground song "My name is Ei, Ei, nick i nie, nick i nie, pom pom poodle, willy willy whisker, my name is Elvis Presley, boys are messy, sittin in hot tub, drinking diet Pepsi..." I love to hear her say, "Oh, that is so stylish." Because of super why she can now sing the whole alphabet song. It is amazing what she picks up. We try not to say "stupid" in our house, and if I do she will catch me and say mommy we don't say that word. Sometimes I have to think about what I said, and then I will realize it.
Both of my girls love to help me when I am cleaning. I had to get a picture of them helping me clean the toilet. Of course there was so much water on the floor and both of them I had to change them. But at least right now they want to be mommy's helpers.
Alex amazes me sometimes. I was just thinking of Annadele at about this age. She is out doing her in some areas. She is getting better at feeding her self. She uses that spoon and fork pretty good. I don't even think we let Annadele even hold the spoon and fork till she was about this age. She is talking more and more. She says mommy, daddy, hi, bye bye, Jesus but more like Jeus, tank u for thank you, tonight I heard yo welcome. She is repeating things more and more. She loves to be with her big sisters. Her new thing is to take everything out of the diaper bag and my purse and strew them all over the house. She also likes to chew on lids of things. I was taking a shower this week when she came in with white something all over her mouth. Freaked me out. She had found some ointment that I used for Annadele's skin, and was chewing on the lid and holding the bottle. She was fine, but loves to scare mommy. Sarah taught her how to high five this week.

Cookies, Cookies, Cookies

So I was in the shower Tuesday morning, and I got a crazy idea to invite the play group that we go to on Tuesday's over for making sugar cookies on Friday. I called Mark just to make sure it was okay with him. There were a couple of moms who had something going on, and one family had sick kids. But I thought I would prepare for the most and just hope people would remember and come.
Thursday I cleaned the house and I made the cookie dough so it could chill. I think it is easier to roll out when it is a little cold. We also had an interview that night with the Bishop regarding our temple cancellation's and sealing. He wanted us to review all the paper work to make sure it is correct, and he gave us a worthiness interview. Now he will send it to our stake president, we have an interview with him and then it will go to the first presidency. Yea, it is finally moving forward. Our bishop said that once it goes to the first presidency, it is only taking 2 to 3 weeks. Wow that is fast. I pray it can continue to move forward.
Friday was cookie day. I told people to come from 10am - 12pm. This was the best time for me because of my kids nap time. That and I didn't feel like I could feed everyone lunch too. Cyndie Reynolds and her two kids Allie and Hunter came. Annadele loved having Allie here. They had fun cutting the cookie dough. And I saw Allie decorate a cookie and then eat it. I thought it was cute. Then Laura Jones came with her daughter Jane. Alex wasn't so sure about having people here, but she was playing with all of the kids in the end. I had made two batches of cookie dough to make sure I had enough. The two moms hardly took any cookies. Just enough to give their kids in school a cookie. I had promised Sarah I would save her some cookies to decorate. I had plenty of cookies. I even saved a little dough so she could cut some out if she chose to. But she was able to decorate a lot of cookies. The bad thing is I didn't take one picture. I even had my camera on the counter to remind me.
That afternoon I saw we were going to have really nice weather. It was 70 degrees. perfect park weather. So after we picked up Sarah from school, we went to the park that is on the way home. It is a nice park with lots of slides. Even the perfect slide for Alex to go down on her own. My little miss independent.
Saturday night Mark made a beef soup. He asked me to pull out a potato, and I pulled out this heart shaped potato. I know I can't remember to take pictures of my cookies but a heart shaped potato. Well I thought it was pretty cool, especially considering it is going to be Valentines.
So to spread the cheer, and not have so many cookies in the house we spent Sunday night for family home evening delivering cookies. We gave some to Mark's two home teaching families, a couple of the moms who weren't able to make it on Friday, and even a plate to Sarah's Grandma who lives in our ward. It felt really nice to be able to do that, and every house we went to they were really glad to receive our cookies.

Date night and Super Bowl

Being in Las Vegas with out family is a blessing and a curse. I think it has been a blessing in that Mark and I have to lean on each other more, and we don't have the escape of family to run to in hard times. (Which is also a curse sometimes.) But then we don't have family around to celebrate the holidays or birthdays, or be with family for other events. It has also limited us in our dating, which has been virtually non existent. Mark is gone a lot, and then there is the issue of money, and getting a babysitter. We just haven't made it a big priority, but that is about to change I hope.
One, Mark's parents are buying a town house basically kitty corner to our home. They are already talking about having the kids sleepover every Friday night. And coming over and doing the gardening, and I don't know what else they think they will do. But one of the nice things about the town house they are buying is that it has an exercise room and a pool! This will be very nice for us in the summer time, and it is very close. I did worry how this will affect our relationship with them. I VT a lady who didn't get a long with her mother-in-law until she moved to Las Vegas. Now they are friends, but distance was the key for them. I worried this would be the case for me and my in laws, but I have prayed and have peace that this will be good for both of us. I hold on to that other wise I might be freaking out right now.
Two, there is a lady in our ward Alisa Jenkins, who Mark is their family home teacher, came over this week so we could get to know each other better, and let our kids play. She has a daughter Jade who is 3 1/2, and son who is 8 months, and she just found out she is pregnant. She was telling me how she has a sybling somewhere who trades babysitting for a date night. They have about 5 couples, and they trade off who is the babysitter while the rest of the couples go on a date. I thought it was a great idea. She had another couple who was supposed to join us, but they never brought their kids. So right now it is just us and the Jenkins, but I thought even if Mark and I only go out once a month that is one more time than we were doing before. So we went out on Saturday evening. I was fasting so we didn't want to go eat, and I got a text a 30 minutes into it that Alex hadn't stopped crying. We ended up just running errands, but at least we were together. I felt bad because when we picked them up, Alex had started crying again so for 2 of the 3 hours we were gone, they were dealing with a crying kid. Got a love separation anxiety.
We are not sports lovers in this house so it is very nice that on the Sabbath, we don't watch TV. I will watch a movie, or let the kids watch something that I approve of. But for the most part, I couldn't tell you who was playing, or who was on a team or any stats what so ever. We did decide to make kobe short ribs and won tons. Alex was doing this little turn with her head tilted. We called it the won ton dance. I just wish I would have taped it. So cute. And then for the last quarter, Mark and Sarah were watching the game. It was funny because Sarah isn't familiar with any of the lingo of football. So she was asking what a field goal is vs a touchdown. What 1st and 10 means, and what other things mean. I thought we are doing something right for her not to know this stuff, but maybe a disservice too. What if down the line she marries a sports aholic. But it was the New York Giants playing. So of course Mark being from New York, he was cheering for the Giants. I don't see Mark get into sports very often, but he had a good time with what he watched. Thank heaven the Giants won. It was a good game. Good times. I am so glad I don't have to do this all of the time. 1 hour once a year, I think I can handle that. Just don't get me started on Magic. That is another story entirely.