New Jobs

Last week I was called to be 1st Counselor in the Relief Society (losing my coveted Primary pianist job) and I am excited about the calling. Then this week Steve was called as the Elders Quorum 1st Counselor. Could be busy around here for this family! Thankfully Katie has learned to love nursery and Sarah gets to start going in about 6 weeks. :)

Going Public

I have decided, at least for now, to let my blog be public without restrictions. I have had a few people tell me the site was giving them issues about signing in, so as long as I don't have any troubles, I'll probably leave it open. We shall see...

A few things I've learned

Here are a few things I have learned lately.
1) do not buy paint from Walmart. You get what you pay for (our black paint ended up being rather dark gray- even after 3 coats)
2) I really like Ben & Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream, and the commissary sells it for only $2. Yummmmm....
3) I really like "Simply Apple" by the makers of "Simply Orange" and "Simply Lemonade". I never knew there was pasteurized apple juice that actually tastes like apple cider. Sooooooo yummy.
4) my voice must be on mute until I get to the point of almost yelling. My girls are pros at tuning me out until I reach that point.
5) diapers are insanely expensive. It is definitely time to press the issue of potty training Katie.

Steve took his GRE on Saturday and did really well. I am very proud of him. Now he's in the middle of getting letters of recommendation and filling out applications. We decided to apply to (in order of priority): University of Illinois (ideal), Georgia Tech, Purdue and BYU. I am anxious to get this next stage rolling so we can figure out where we will be next. Ah, the life of the military is never without some suspense.

So Saturday we took everyone over to Lawrence (at the University of Kansas campus) so Steve could take his test. Then we continued to Kansas City to go to "Worlds of Fun" and "Oceans of Fun". They were having a special military appreciation deal. We only had to pay for Ellie, which still ended up being $32. But those two parks were great! There were some fun rollercoasters that Steve went on and really enjoyed (he had to ride one twice so he could be in the front row to get the full thrill). And then there was a really fun "Snoopy Land" for the little kids. I was thoroughly impressed with this area. Lots of rides for little ones. We were even able to put Sarah on a couple of them and she had a blast! All three girls could have stayed there the whole day riding on the bugs, cars, swings, boats, airplanes, etc. We brought the camera, but figured it was safer to just leave it in the car. I just wish we could have caught the excited expressions on the girls faces as they rode. We strolled over to Oceans of Fun next and after changing into our suits played in the water for just an hour or so. Except for the little kiddie fort it was geared for the older crowd mostly (including a swim-up bar), and since the girls had to be in life jackets for everything it was more work than we felt it was worth. Plus, it was getting late and we still had a 2 1/2 hour drive ahead of us. It really was a great day, though. I'm glad we decided to go. We haven't done a lot of exciting adventures this summer, so this was a great way to end the swim season.

Worst Mom of the Year Award

That is what I felt I deserved on Wednesday. I took Ellie and Katie over to Topeka (an hour away) to see the dentist. I drove all the way there because I had a great reference for a Pediatric Dentist, and I had a horrible experience with a dentist here in the area. So we were up early and out the door before 8am. I knew Ellie had one spot on her teeth that had probably progressed into a cavity. Well, she was a champ getting her teeth cleaned. She thought being in the big chair was very cool. The only reason I took Katie was to get her tooth checked out that she injured a couple months ago. The dentist said it looked fine and not to worry. Well, then the dentist told me the verdict on Ellie. I couldn't believe it- 3 crowns and one cavity filled. Yikes! I was dumbfounded. We try our best to take care of those teeth, too. No fruit snacks anymore, brush extremely well each night and even use a fluoride rinse every night to keep them strong. Obviously to no avail. I was seriously devastated. That wasn't the worst part. We took a 2 hour break (they were able to get us an appointment that afternoon to get the work done so we didn't have to drive back) and then they got to work. I was not allowed back in the room with her, but I thought she would do just fine. Well, an hour later they came and got me. This is when I knew I was the worst mom EVER. They had done the filling and Ellie did great. But it was time for the crowns and Ellie wanted nothing to do with it. I guess she was pulling at the instruments and squirming and making it impossible to work on her. So the dentist wanted to know if they could use a restraining blanket on her. Okay- so I'm crying now just thinking about it. I just about lost it there as well. Of course I consented, because she needed it done and the nitrous oxide wasn't doing anything to calm her down. Another hour later I was called back and there was little Ellie with a very numb cheek and the most sad face I've ever seen. How could I put my little girl through that? Who lets their child's teeth get that bad by age 4? So yeah, still beating myself up about it.

Amazingly Ellie has recovered like a champ. We got her some Ibuprofin and by the time she took the hour-long catnap on the ride home (we didn't get back until almost 5pm) she was back to her old self and hasn't complained since. She talked of soreness that evening at dinner, but nothing else. We joke about how she got crowns on her teeth instead of on her head like most princesses. She thinks that's funny. I never got my first cavity until I was 27, so this is all so unfamiliar and... sad. My poor metal-mouthed girl.

So yeah, not the kind of award I was hoping for this week, but I will accept it dutifully and do my best to try and not let it happen again.

stinky?

We were driving home from church yesterday and Katie scrunched up her nose and said, "something is stinky." I didn't have any ideas, but I heard Ellie whisper quietly to Katie, "I think maybe it's Daddy." We laughed about that one the rest of the way home. Poor Steve...

A quick one

Almost another month already? I've been putting this off and putting this off, thinking I'll have time to get pictures together and really tell how awesome our vacation with Mom, Dad and DickSybil was. But alas, I keep getting distracted with things like curtains for the girls' closet, Stephanie Meyer books, and the usual running around like crazy trying to keep this house clean and still have fun with the girls.

So a few little things, I suppose.

Steve has been really busy with work the last few weeks. Lots of micromanaging from the Brigade Colonel is making things a little tougher on him. Then he comes home and has to study for that rotten GRE. He is being extremely diligent, and he deserves to do very well on that test. He's just tired of all those tricky math questions. Then on top of that he has built me two book shelves, put up that last side of the fence and lets me sleep in when he can. Talk about super-hubby!

We were watching a friend's 3 kids this evening and they were eating dinner with us. Steve told those 3 kids to do something... I honestly can't remember now... and they sort of laughed at it. Ellie very seriously interjected and said- "alright, you'd better listen, because Dad's the boss." So funny... Steve is always saying that I'm the one the girls actually listen to (they have a tendency to come to me and ask me to have Steve do something for them. I'm constantly telling them to just go and ask their dad themselves!)

Katie is for some reason frightened of going to the bathroom in the toilet. But on the same token she wants to wear underwear more than anything. In fact, a couple times I have caught her wearing Ellie's underwear, hidden under her clothes, of course. I know she could do it- the one time I was unaware of this little item of clothing, she started to beg me to put a diaper on her. She had to go to the bathroom and didn't want to get the underwear all wet. So yeah, not sure what the fear is there. She'll sit on it forever, if you really wanted her to. Just won't "go". She is amazingly talented at saying prayers. She's sometimes more articulate than Ellie. Have I mentioned that before?

Sarah just cracks me up. Her facial expressions... are no less amusing than her sisters'. She doesn't actually say the words, but she always grunts her "please and thank you." If you ask a positive question, she'll say uh huh. She still gets ecstatic when Steve comes home and insists on standing outside when he leaves so she can wave good-bye. I just can't get over what a sweet little girl she is. She knows how to crawl around and bark like a dog, right along with her sisters. She can "play dead" and wait for that magical kiss from her sisters to wake her up (for a limited amount of time, of course). She can run now, which is so fun to watch. She yells at her sisters when they're getting too far away on their bikes, or if she wants to call them. It's always a yell and it sounds kind of like "Ah-yah". I think it's for both girls, but definitely for Ellie.

Random facts... Favorite foods:
Ellie- she told us it was turkey and cheese. She also loves strawberries and mac and cheese.
Katie- Definitely mac and cheese, although she likes pizza almost as much as I do.
Sarah- Food. There is very little (besides mashed potatoes) that the girl won't eat. But if I had to pick a favorite: grapes. She would eat grapes all day long if I let her.

And they all love colored marshmallows. It's been the latest after-nap snack. Sarah will eat hers then come up to me and say, "uh- mah". I ask her to say please and she gets that big, irresistible grin on her face and makes the sign for "more". Hey- works for me!

My goal for my next post is to brag about what a great time with had with family here. No promises, but it's a good goal. And I'll try to get pictures as well. Steve's using a new photo sorting software that I haven't played with, which makes it a little intimidating at the moment.

Updates

I know I haven't posted in forever, but I really feel like there hasn't been anything that thrilling going on around here. So I'll just give the update as I see it. We are almost out of boxes. I know I said that last time, but golly- this is taking forever! I really feel like we're making good progress. We've put together a Goodwill pile and a garage sale pile (for the post-wide sale this fall) in our garage. Steve has done a great job getting our audio/video set up as well as hanging lots and lots of pictures and shelves for me. What a great husband he is. So patient.

A couple funny things the girls have said/done lately...

Ellie after church told me she pulled out an eyeball. I was very curious, so I looked and she had an eyelash on her finger. Then again today she told me she pulled out an eyeball and I taught her to make a wish on it. She thought that was pretty fun. I keep trying to tell her the real name, but she does what she wants :) She sounds more and more like me every day. Kind of scary. I have to remind her that she's "not the mom" several times a day. But she also plays extremely well with her sisters and is very creative and smart.

After picking up pizza the other day, Katie told us in the car that she wanted a butt kick. I am totally serious! Okay, the interpretation was she wanted a breadstick, but I promise that's what we heard. So, so funny. Katie has some serious wreckless abandone. She has no true concept of where she is in relation to... anything. She's constantly bumping heads with us (ouch!) or running into things or falling. She has also discovered quite the temper. When things are not going her way- watch out. Ellie or Sarah typically get a pinch, hair pull or a punch as Katie vents that frustration. And since she has a very proficient vocabulary, we hear about it with the screams as well. I'm still trying to figure out how to nip that one in the bud. But at the same time, she is the snuggliest little girl there ever was.

Sarah has learned to spit. The girls all brush their teeth together, so when Steve tells Ellie or Katie to spit, Sarah spits right along with them. About a week ago we were sitting at dinner and Sarah out of the blue yelled, "Dadda, pbpbpb (spit)." She was so proud of herself. She loves her daddy. Out of all the girls she has formed the greatest attachment to Steve and he is loving it. She's still a Momma's girl, of course. But she adores Steve and is always super excited when he comes home from work. She's becoming more and more one of the "girls" and tries to play and run right alongside her sisters. She and Katie have scuffed up knees to prove it. Sarah's hair has been growing great guns, too. It's as long, or longer than Katie's now. I know we have pictures somewhere... I'll try to get some uploaded soon. She is such a sweet little girl.

I have finally been burning our old video tapes onto the computer the last couple days so I can send the camera off to Geoff. Golly, we have a lot of tapes to do! But anyway, it has been fun to relive some of the moments we have captured over the years. I haven't sat and watched all of them, but here and there I've caught a few things. I reminisced visiting Logan with Steve right before Ellie was born. I watched Ellie as a baby and toddler and find it hard to believe I've already forgotten how she was when she was little. It was fun seeing her and Emma Tolman together over the years as well. And then Katie. I cringed at the screaming (yep- it was just as bad as I remember) but also got to enjoy watching her smile and laugh and learn to crawl. I guess her first year wasn't all that bad... ;-) Ellie was sure cute with Katie, too. I think a lot of times I get caught up in the day-to-day grind and forget about the little things that we are blessed with. I need to do that more often. When the girls are fighting and screaming would probably be a good time.

What else have we been doing lately? Well, we got a pool pass to the pools on Post and have gone a few times now. We go over Steve's lunch break and that hour is just right for all of us. We get our fill of swimming, and the girls are exhausted for naps by the time we get home. (Sometimes I am, too!) Steve has loaded up on wood again and is going to build a bookshelf for our room upstairs, a little shelf for my piano music down here in the family room, and eventually a bunk bed for the girls. They are great undertakings, but he is very excited about them.

Steve and I are really enjoying our callings. I haven't ever been in Primary since I graduated at age 12, so it's neat to be back in. And playing piano is really nice. It's low- stress, but very enjoyable. Plus I'm learning the songs so I can help Ellie learn them. I also just received a call to be the Young Women Personal Progress Leader as well. I'm still not quite sure what that means, but as soon as I do I'll be sure to pass it along. Steve teaches the 14-18 Sunday School and really enjoys it. He just really likes to teach in general.

Apparently I had more to post than I thought. Again, I'll look to get pics up soon. We look forward to Mom and Dad and DickSybil visiting next week! Hooray!

Adults say the darndest things

A friend, Jaymie put a post on her blog about all the crazy things her kids "make" her say and it just cracked me up. So I've decided to try and write down some of the things that come out of my mouth that are really quite silly. I'll just add them to the list on the right. I think someday I'll get a kick out of it. The first one is from the other day.

We're just about out of boxes here. There are a bunch in our room and a bunch in the garage, but pretty much everywhere else is all unpacked. Hooray!!!

Family Reunion Photo

Here's the family picture we took at the reunion for those of you that don't know my family that well. This is everyone from my side! :-)

Happy 4th of July!

You won't be seeing many candid shots now that Steve is home, but that doesn't mean we can't have fun now and again. Happy 4th of July!

Boxes, boxes and more boxes

It is amazing and extremely frustrating how slow the unpacking is going. Mom reminded me that I have 2 more kids this go-round, but seriously... over a week in this house and we're still trying to dig our way out. The kitchen was first priority, so that's pretty much done. Everything else is still halfway there. Since I'm on a roll, I'll explain all the other annoyances going on here.

The mold... it won't go away. I'm convinced the garage will never be without the mold smell again. I can feel my lungs filling up with mold spores every time I go out there. Okay, not really- but the smell is awful. Mom's suggestion of Lysol is probably going to be my next route. We keep the door open all day to air it out, but it's not cutting it. Yesterday was trash day, so we threw out a bunch of our yucky stuff. It ended up being two bookcases, an entertainment stand and two trunks that were Steve's from West Point. I put notes on the really gross ones to warn people away, but the two moldiest items were still taken off the curb. It amazes me what people are willing to try and salvage. The worst part about this all, though was our dealings with insurance. I mentioned before that the storage unit refused any responsibility for ruining our things. So we figured our renter's insurance would take care of it. We were wrong! Since mold happens over time, the insurance won't cover it. Had it been an act of God, like tornado ripping the roof off, they might have considered covering us. That news did not make me happy. So we're just out the money for the items we tossed. At least they're finally out of our garage and the smell can start to dissipate. We cleaned up our kitchen table and the cedar chest, which were the two things we really wanted to keep.

A few other things: there's something terribly wrong with our water, the plumbing isn't working right, Steve is still sick (could be the water?), and I'm still living with boxes.

On a positive note: we are living in our own space. I love carpet. My birthday present TV is really, really nice. Like Dad mentioned, one way or another we will be getting that fourth side of our fence (a Better Business complaint has been submitted, but if that falls through- a guy in the ward has offered us his fence for free as he's moving in a few weeks). As far as we know, most of the mold has been eradicated. Steve is still home from Iraq. Yeah... can't really think of a lot right now. Pretty sad.

The girls are changing quite a bit. They love having all their new toys to play with. Ellie and Katie both enjoy their "big kid beds". Sarah is much more interactive with the girls, which is sometimes hilarious to watch. She's trying to talk more, but it just ends up being really loud screams just like her sisters. She's very good at getting up and down stairs, which is comforting. Katie is getting rooked into playing with Ellie and is usually in the middle of the trouble as well. Katie ends up being the daddy or the baby most times because Ellie is always the mommy. Ellie is back into the mode of changing clothes many times a day, which I actually enjoy watching.

Something funny- Ellie asked me the other day if being the mom was annoying? I had to laugh at that one.

Hopefully the next time I post I will have better news to report. This has been a horrible week for us and we are anxious to be done with it! :-D

Upheaval

That is the story of our life. Tonight I am going to vent and maybe even whine about our circumstances. But first on a positive note... we have our house!! We're not actually living in it, but we moved all our miscellaneous belongings from the garage here into the garage over there... So we're making progress.

But now to my laundry list. First of all, my girls are not good with change (can't imagine where they get that from!) I have heard crying and whining practically nonstop the last couple days. Having Sarah attached to my hip has not made things easy. Put on top of that Sarah and Katie teething (figured out Katie is by chance this afternoon), it has not been a very fun party around here. Then to add to it all, Sarah has been waking up multiple times at night and Ellie has wet her bed the last three nights in a row. I suppose all kids have a hard time with change, it's just that my girls have experienced a TON of change the last two months. I am certainly ready for consistency!

Something funny- Steve and I are having a really hard time in that new house. It is the exact mirror opposite of our last house on post, so we keep getting mixed up. It is going to take awhile to figure out who belongs in which room and get used to moving in the right direction in that house.

Tiff's Housing Update

Alone… we are finally alone. I thought I would feel a lot more relief today, as CarmaLee and her family left for their vacation. I think the problem is that we’re still here. Until we’re in our own home with our own things I won’t be completely at ease. And here’s the update about all that:

We sign for our house tomorrow. Yay!!! The girls and I walked over yesterday and saw that the cleaning crew was there getting it ready to be moved into, which is nice. We checked out the back yard and the girls were getting excited about having their own home and their own space. But, there’s a catch to that backyard. Right before we left on leave the guy that lived there before, Mark, offered to have us buy the fence that covered the back yard. It was adjoining the neighbor’s fence. This was ideal, as our house sits on the corner of two busy roads. I thought it was great! We paid quite a bit for it, but since we’ll probably resell it when we leave, it really seemed like a great thing. I like feeling a little safer about letting the girls outside! Then we got home from leave and as we were driving past the house Steve noticed something that wasn’t quite right. We pulled over and he took a walk into the back yard only to discover something very sad… we now only had a three-sided fence. Yeah- when the neighbors moved out, the fence company they rented from took all four of their sides, leaving only three for us. Mark assured us that he owned all four sides, but alas- not a full fence. It is currently being disputed and hopefully the fencing company will cave in and put our fourth side of the fence back up. nothing can be easy, right?

So we sign for the house tomorrow. Then we were able to schedule to have our belongings from the storage unit picked up and delivered by the military, which means I don’t need to be as concerned about the Elder’s Quorum ruining my things :) Unfortunately the first date we could get is Tuesday, so it looks like we’ll be staying at CarmaLee’s until then. My only consolation is that we are here alone now and I don’t have to cook for, clean up after or babysit her kids now. I really don’t know how I survived these last two weeks. Heavenly Father blessed me with some amazing patience and perseverance. Trust me, there were days… Two families with two very different lifestyles under the same roof just doesn’t work so well long-term. I am grateful that CarmaLee let us stay here. I’m just glad the end is in sight.

And there you have it!

Friday the 13th

Friday the thirteenth… there are movies made about that day! Well, thankfully I don’t put a lot of stock into superstition, so nothing could touch me! If only that were true. We decided that since Steve had the day off we would go over to Topeka to get a few things from Sam’s that we needed. We thought the girls would sleep during the hour-long drive there. Of course not! So then we decided to have lunch at Olive Garden, figuring the girls would be happy eating breadsticks until the food arrived. Ha! Not a chance. They squirmed and screamed and ran and did anything and everything to make that meal absolutely miserable. We were both ready to give the girls away by the end of the meal. The only positive thing was that the food did taste really good. From there we made a couple quick stops at Target, Kohl’s (this one I did alone and had quick fun at the children’s clearance racks) and finally Sam’s. The girls were miserable in Sam’s Club as well. We still managed to spend an amazing amount of money and escape with our sanity. The girls stayed awake on the way home from Topeka as well. We made a stop at Coldstone for a yummy ice cream cake for my birthday (yummm) and got home to feed the girls. Ellie had a meltdown at the dinner table because she didn’t want what we were having. Katie was overtired and just wanted to go to bed. Sarah was just hungry and felt better once she was fed. We got the two little ones to bed by 6:45 and told Ellie that we were going to a movie and Carma Lee would put her to bed. She did not appreciate that. We left anyway! :)

So we got to the movie theater only to find out that they changed the order of showings within the last 2 days and we didn’t know it (this on-post theater only shows one movie a night). Instead of showing the chick flick we wanted to see, it was “Speed Racer.” Yeah- been there, done that- definitely not interested in going there again! I about cried. My only consolation was that I got to come home and read “Eclipse”, the third book in the “Twilight” series that had arrived in the mail that afternoon (I was introduced to this series in Idaho and had read the first two books earlier in the week... which is why I don't read books very often- I get addicted!).

As I put this to paper (well, cyberspace) it doesn't seem as terrible as it did then. But trust me, it was a long day! Happy Birthday to me?

Firsts

Ellie had a big day of "firsts" on Sunday. To start, she was able to pay tithing for the very first time. Steve let her help wash dishes a couple times and she was paid for her help. She was able to hand the bishop a tithing envelope for the very first time. She really liked that. Then during Sacrament meeting I was out in the hall with Sarah (as usual). I peeked in the chapel and saw Steve get up. He didn't come out to the hall, so I figured he had gotten up to bear his testimony. I heard silence, so I peeked in and saw Ellie up there in front of the microphone! I thought, "I wonder if Steve knows he's not allowed to prompt her?" But next thing I know Ellie said, "Testimony" and gave the sweetest little testimony. It put a lump in my throat, I was so proud of her. I didn't realize she knew what a testimony was, let alone know what to say if she went up there! It sure made me proud of her.

Sarah got her 6th tooth on Sunday as well. She's still not feeling well, so I don't know if there are more teeth coming or if she picked up a bug on Sunday.

We are excited to go on leave in just 4 more sleeps. :-D