4/1/09 - 4/16/09

Wednesday 4/1/09 – The missionaries stopped by tonight with a plate of brownies to give away. The missionaries started a program where they make brownies and give them to members of the church so they can give them away to family and friends. Their hope is to help the members of the church reach out to their neighborhoods and become friends with those that live around them. I have a neighbor that I am starting to get to know who just had a baby. I made her a baby blanket, then she brought me cookies, so I thought bringing the brownies over to her would be the best idea. She was upstairs with the baby, who apparently was freaking out and had just peed on her husband. So it was a bit chaotic over there, but at least I was able to meet her husband.

Thursday 4/2/09 – I invited the neighbor over to go through my old baby clothes after work tonight. We hadn't met in person before, only on Facebook, so it was nice to meet her face-to-face. Her baby is 3 months old and just a little bit bigger than what Clark was when he was born (I think she said he was almost 12 pounds, and Clark was 10.5). We decided that when the weather got warmer we would have a barbecue, and I offered to take some pictures of her baby for her. She seemed like a really nice person. It's funny that I didn't know them until another neighbor set up a block club on Facebook – I guess it takes the Internet to get people together sometimes, even when you live right across the street. I had bedtime with the boys tonight and while I was reading a book to Lijah he said something that cracked me up. We were reading a book about colors and we were on the brown page that had worms on it. I asked him where he puts the worms and he said that the worms go in his eyes, while poking his eyes out with his fingers. He usually says that the worms go on his hands…..

Friday 4/3/09 – Elder Mangham and his companion were able to come over today and help us out with out plumbing. Hopefully we can get some good work done on our bathroom this weekend now….. I left work a bit early and then we all went over to grandma's house for dinner and baths (we picked up Chipotle on the way over). I decided to try out her whirlpool bath to see what I was missing out on. When I got in and turned on the jets I thought I had made a big mistake in not buying a whirlpool tub for our bathroom. But then after a few minutes it just got annoying, and my skin itched where the jets were hitting me, and I had to turn it off. When I turned it off Jason came to the door and asked why I turned it off and I replied, "I had it on, but it's just too much". Then for the rest of my bath I got to overhear everyone talking about my being a wimp and wondering how I could not like a whirlpool bath. But her tub was nice and deep so I had a very nice time without the whirlpool being on, regardless of what everyone else thought. Lijah had a good time making his angry face at everyone and drinking Capri Sun's, and Clark mostly took a nap on grandma's bed with a pillow barricade all around him.

Saturday 4/4/09 – Today was the first day of General Conference, and we hooked up the laptop to the TV so we could watch it online. I printed off a packet for Lijah to color, got out the Play-Doh table, and hung up a posted of the church leaders next to the TV. In the packet were pictures of the leaders who were speaking and an outline of a tie – the object was for Lijah to look at the picture of the person talking, see what color their tie was, and color the picture. Instead he made me color all of the ties blue and then insisted that I color their eyes, and then laughed because the men looked 'funny'. The poster was a bit more effective. Lijah likes to match things, and when he finds a match he says that they are 'friends', so I thought he could look at the person talking and find the 'friend' on the poster. He had a hard time matching them up because one was a picture and the other was a live person, but I helped him out and then we circled the pictures of those who talked to us. Dan came over and put in the storage cabinet and put up drywall. Jason's Uncle Lee also came over to help a bit with the plumbing.

Sunday 4/5/09 – Today was the second day of General Conference and we watched it again at home. Dan had a lot to do at home so he did not come over to work on the bathroom. In between sessions Lijah and I went outside and blew bubbles. It was cold out, but Lijah had a fun time chasing the bubbles, spilling them on accident, and learning how to blow bubbles himself. During the second session, Jason went up and taped plastic around the tub so I could take a bath. We paused the conference so I could actually take the bath, and it sure was the best bath I've ever had. Our new tub is nice and deep, and contoured so you can lay down comfortably in it. I also noticed that I could stretch my legs all of the way out while sitting in it. Our last tub was shallow and short, so it was not even worth it to get in the tub. Then I watched the rest of the conference while Lijah and Clark both napped. I have to admit that I dozed off for a few minutes as well. I was so warm and comfy after that bath that I had no control…..

Monday 4/6/09 – All I can say about today is that it was a horrible stressful day at work and I cried while I was using the Wellness room on a break. I was happy to be home. It really was bad at work, but I think my hormones may have had a lot to do with it as well. Gotta love hormones…..

Wednesday 4/8/09 – I called my dad after work tonight while Jason was out Home Teaching. Lijah was playing in my room, Clark was sleeping, and I was on my bed talking. All of a sudden I heard a thud. I looked over and Lijah had taken grandpa's staple gun, plugged it in, and set it off on the floor. He's lucky that there were no staples in it and he didn't staple himself to the floor. He was scared, and so was I, and the staple gun is now safely put out of reach. It's not fun having all kinds of tools out while we are doing our bathroom because Lijah is totally into the tools and wants to play with them. Clark went down for his nap as usual at 7pm tonight. He usually sleeps for about 20-30 minutes and then goes to bed for the night at about 9pm. It was 8pm and he didn't wake up yet so I went to check on him. He seemed to be sleeping, but I thought I saw him stirring so I started rubbing his back and saying his name. But he didn't get up, that only seemed to get him nestled back to sleep. So I let him sleep, fully aware of the consequences that would follow when he got up in the middle of the night wanting to play. At 10pm he still wasn't up so I went to bed, sure that I was going to get woken up as soon as I fell asleep. I was amazed when it was 5am and he was still asleep! He hadn't really eaten anything before going down for his nap so I am not sure how this is possible…..but I guess it was.

Thursday 4/9/09 – Tonight after work Jason attempted to cut up some dry wall for the bathroom. At first he said it was a lot of fun, but then the measurements weren't working out right, and he eventually put it all away and said that dry-walling just wasn't in his future. Our bathroom is so 'wavy-gravy' as Dan puts it that nothing is even measurements and all of the support beams are uneven. It holds up fine, I just don't think they were as precise back in 1911 as they are today when building houses. Lijah, Clark, and I went and played in the front yard while Jason was cutting it up. Lijah had his own tape measurer and was 'helping' daddy while Clark and I sat on the lawn wrapped in a blanket. Lijah also got to go hang out with Jason downstairs for awhile. Then I took a bath, but it was cold. Jason took a bath first and got all of the hot water, but that's ok. The point was to get washed up, and I got washed up. Lijah got to talk to grandma on the phone and she said she would make him some cookies, so that is all he talks about now is Maw-Maw and the cookies. Last night he started calling her Maw-Maw instead of grandma….. Clark did the same thing at his evening nap time again as last night so I let him sleep. But this time he got up around 10pm so I just brought him to bed with me and put a bottle next to the bed since I knew he would get hungry in the middle of the night (and he did). But we ended up sleeping pretty good – except for Chop Chop sitting two inches from my face all night brushing her feathery tail and purring loudly in my face.

Saturday 4/11/09 – Lijah, Clark, and I spent the morning in the backyard cleaning up the gardens. There is a section of the garden that always gets overgrown with weeds so I decided I would dig it up and put some potted tomatoes back there instead. Lijah helped me dig with his little shovel and we found some worms. He kept saying "I'm helping mommy, I'm helping". It was pretty cute. When I was raking up the dead plants he went and got the big push broom and started sweeping the lawn. During the afternoon, Jason went out to the shooting range with Dan and came back with a poster of Osama Bin Laden full of bullet holes. Then I went to Dots to see if I could find some new jeans, but didn't have any luck.

Sunday 4/12/09 – Again this morning I went out to the garden to play and rake up dead plants. Then we went to Cherie's for dinner. After dinner we all hung out in the back yard on the big swing and the kids played on the play set. Abbie made a little game for the kids to find their Easter baskets. Before bed, Jason went to lock the deadbolt on the back door and the pane of glass in the door shattered.

Tuesday 4/14/09 – Today I took the day off of work for Clark's 6 month doctor's appointment. He's actually 7 months, but I procrastinated making the appointment and then the doctor was booked. I brought Lijah along with me so he could meet Dr. Waller and he was really good during the visit and was very interested in what the doctor was doing to Clark. Clark got a duck book from the doctor and had his shots. He cried for about 30 seconds and then was back to his normal happy self. When we got home Clark laid down for a nap and Lijah and I went out to do some yard work, and then Jason came out too. I cleaned up almost half of the backyard and got a slight sunburn. Lijah found some worms and sprayed them with the hose. In the afternoon Clark would not take his second nap. I think his legs hurt where he got his shots. He would, however, lay down in my bed with me – so I took the opportunity to take a nap myself. I haven't had a nap for months and ended up getting a good 2 hour nap in! Then Clark, Lijah, and I went for a wagon ride around the neighborhood.

Wednesday 4/15/09 – After work my visiting teacher, Trish Howard, came over for a visit. Lijah went to the store with Jason to get some plexi-glass for our back door. Jason had bought a big piece yesterday but it cracked when he was cutting it, so he decided to get a pre-cut piece instead. The glass man came over to give us a free estimate on how much the glass replacement would be, and it was $250!!! But he showed Jason how to take the door apart to do it himself (how nice of him…). To get a new door would have been $300, so paying $250 just for glass would have been ridiculous, as would be paying $300 for a door. Our house is so old that nothing is standard sized in it, so the door would have been a custom door, hence the expensiveness of it.

Thursday 4/16/09 – After work I quickly ate and then took the boys for a wagon ride. On the way out I thought I should stop by Margaret's to see if she wanted to join us, and she did. After the walk, right when we were walking up to our houses, we saw Amy from across the street walking up with a big plate of goodies. She was bringing over frosted pumpkin bars for us! They were absolutely delicious! Margaret went home and Amy and I continued to talk for a bit. Clark was still in his car seat (in the wagon) and Lijah thought he'd have some fun and pull him around. I let him go back and forth in front of our house a bit. But then he went down the sidewalk past the neighbors' house, so I asked him to turn around. He said "no, that way" and I said "no, turn around" and this went back and forth like this a few times. Then he got the look in his eye that he was going to run so I told Amy that I had to go and I started running to get him. Well, he thought that this was pretty funny, and he started running! With the wagon! With Clark in it! I couldn't believe that little stinker. But I am faster than he is and I caught up with him. Then he dropped the wagon handle (or dead weight in his eyes which was just slowing him down at this point), but I still got him. I crouched down and talked to him about what happened and told him that he had to hold my hand and walk back to the house with me. He agreed, but then wouldn't do it. This happened a few times. So I picked him up, threw him over my shoulder, picked up the wagon, and walked home. Lijah was whining the whole way home because he was scared I was going to drop him (like what happened this past winter) but I told him that he wouldn't walk with me so I had to carry him. Everything was fine once we got home, but he did get another talking to when we got inside. I told him all the reasons I didn't want him to run away, and that I'd be sad if he got lost or hurt, and that I loved him. It was a sweet moment really. After the kids were in bed I got to enjoy a nice bath. This meant I got to bed later than normal, but at least I was clean and comfy.