Memorial Day Weekend

I find it quite interesting that we spend this day to honor those who have sacrificed for our freedoms by enjoying the freedoms that we have.  Whether it's a working weekend or play, we are so blessed to have the freedom to choose to do those things. 
This weekend, we tackled several projects--some we finished, some we didn't.  But, most importantly, we made progress!  I'll just say here that I can't believe we've only been in the house for three weeks.  It feels like it's been MUCH longer--so I have had to convince myself to be patient with everything I want to do here.  One day at a time, we are transforming this place!

OK--since Friday night, we have completely painted the family room, mounted the TV, trimmed the bottoms of a few doors, made a couple of trips to Home Depot, ripped out an area of landscaping, rebunked the girls' bed, got drywall in the kitchen ceiling, and spent time together as a family.  (And, I use the term "we" here loosely.  Except for the painting and yard work, I was the lovely assistant in the projects. I know--I have the tough part.)

So, are you ready for some before and after shots? 

I'll start with the yard.  We have only scratched the surface of our yard.  We still have SO much work to do out there.  Since we were painting the family room, I wanted to rip out the plants that were blocking the light from coming in the family room windows.  But, it poured all weekend.  Until about 5 p.m. today when the sun finally made an appearance.  Once the kids were in bed, Ryan and I rushed out--and we finished just as it got dark.

BEFORE

AFTER

(This is a little hard to see because I took it in the dark.  But, you get the idea.)

OK--now for the family room.  Please note that we still have a TON of work to do in here.  We are going to put up chair rail and crown moulding...and still need to paint the existing trim and fireplace, which will all be white.  I forgot to take TRUE before pics.  (The first one was taken from our house listing.)  So, these were taken once we had moved everything into the middle of the floor.  And, I was impatient in taking the after pics, so things are still out of place in those--but I'm mainly including these so you can see the color difference. 

BEFORE

AFTER

Life as a Facebook Status

My life today has been a series of status updates.  And, since I'm not one to update my status multiple times per day, here they all are for your enjoyment.

I finally met my goal of getting up, dressed, showered, and ready before the girls were up!  I got up early and they slept in a little.  I could get used to this.

Oh no.  The car won't start.  I should probably turn the interior lights off so my 3 yr. old doesn't leave one on again.

Thank goodness I've already met my neighbor.  And she was home.

I could spend hours in the paint department of Home Depot.

Walls are (partially) primed and ready for action!

Hmm..Not sure I like the look of Scottish Isle and Feldspar in my family room.

The more I look at Hawaiian Sky, the more I'm convinced that's definitely the color for my bedroom.  Now, if I could just get a new bedroom set and change the bedding...

I think I put a little too much basil on my Black Bean Pizza Burger.  I really love basil, but the balance was off.  (These will soon be posted on My Little Red Kitchen.)

I can actually hear the rain.  Ryan took the girls to run errands.

Baby sleeping...second coat on the walls...time to empty my brain onto the blog.

Ta-funch-a-munch

Today, I went into the Mother's Room during Sunday School to feed Clayton.  Another mom was in there with her baby and we started talking.  During the course of our conversation, we talked about going on our missions, how we loved the MTC, how our lives were when we got home, etc. 

At one point, she mentioned that she got home at the beginning of May 2003, (I got home at the end of May 2003).  It then occurred to me to ask her where she went on her mission.  When she answered, "Madagascar, " I replied, "Tafunchamunch!"  (Which means "goodnight" in Malagasi, the language spoken in Madagascar.)  She looked surprised and said, "How do you know that?"  I said, "Some sisters in the MTC told...Wait a second, when were you in the MTC?"  And then we discovered we were there at the same time!  After putting 2 and 2 together, we realized she and her companion were probably the sister missionaries that taught me that phrase.

From Provo to Madagascar and the Baltics to Covington...the world sure is a small place!

My Little Red Kitchen

Announcing "My Little Red Kitchen"!  I've decided that it's high time I started a cooking blog.  Making meals on a daily basis can be SO mundane.  I started this blog to make it a little more fun--so I can share my adventures along the way.  Check it out!  (See the button on my sidebar.)  And then come back for second helpings...and thirds...and fourths...and...

Before and After

Tell me...Can you see a difference?

BEFORE

AFTER

The Middle Drive

While we were driving to Home Depot last Monday, Kallie commented that it would be really cool if cars had sidewalks to go on.  I replied that they do--they're called roads.  After a slight bit of protesting, she finally came to the realization that sidewalks are for people what roads are for cars. 

Then, as we were heading home from the 4 hour shopping trip, she said, "Mom, I think roads should be called "middle drives."  You know, because we drive in the middle."  I was actually quite surprised by her observation--but it made complete sense!  A sidewalk is on the side and used for walking.  So, it makes sense that a road would be a middle drive.  It's always fun to be with my kids when something clicks for them!

Wanted: A New Role Model

Last night, it was Kallie's turn to give the FHE lesson.  Unless there is something that needs to be addressed, we usually let the kids determine their own topic.  Kallie decided to talk about sharing and being kind.  We read a story about some brothers and sisters who surprised their family by trying to be more like Jesus.  There have been a few opportunities for reminders in the 24 hours since last night's lesson.  One of them was this afternoon.

Today was a crazy day.  I won't go into the particulars, but the girls didn't get a nap and I was a little on the stressed side.  On the way home from the doctor's office today, Whitney and Kallie were bickering and Whitney was getting very whiny.  Kallie reminded her about being kind and I said, "Do you want to be like Jesus?"  Whitney replied, "Yes!"  And then I explained that Jesus didn't whine and He didn't fuss and cry.  Whitney seemed surprised by this, "He didn't?"  Nope.  And then she concluded, "Then I don't want to be like Jesus."

Can you identify with this, too?

Vancouver Temple Open House

A few months ago, when I realized there was a temple open house just a couple of hours from us, I knew that I wanted to take my kids.  I wanted them to see the inside of a temple and have one more opportunity to teach them about what happens in the temple.  After discussing this with Ryan, we immediately set to work on our passports in preparation for the event.

We originally planned to go on Monday, April 19.  Imagine my disappointment when that day found Kallie very sick and Whitney coming down with the same thing.  I started praying my guts out that we would still be able to make it before the open house ended on Saturday, April 24.  Each day we woke up hoping to see a change in the high temps the girls were running.  We figured if Kallie was looking better, we'd know how long the illness lasted and could calculate when Whitney would be done. 

By Wednesday, Kallie had made only minor improvements and Whitney was still in the thick of it.  That same morning, I ended up at the doctor for a lovely case of conjunctivitis.  When I came home and realized Kallie's eyes looked just like mine, I took her to the pediatrician.  After looking her over, the nurse practitioner proclaimed, "Strep!" based on her little throat.  Swabbing determined it wasn't strep, but the NP decided antibiotics were the way to go.  Thursday morning, she was looking much more like herself again.

Knowing that Whitney was 2 days behind Kallie--and STILL hoping to make it to the open house, I took Whitney to the pediatrician Thursday morning.  Her throat looked alright to me, but I just felt like it was a good idea.  (Just for the record here, Kallie complained a TON about being sick.  Whitney didn't complain one bit.  Except once or twice to say, "My head hurts.")  Good thing I took her in--she had a raging ear infection.  As I picked up the second bottle of antibiotics, I decided that it would be easier to remember to take the medicine with two little people to remind me.

Thursday night, Ryan and I prepared to go to the open house the next morning.  We would go on Saturday if the kids weren't well enough, but if they were doing fine--then we were going Friday.  When Whitney woke up on Friday, her eyes were brighter and she had no trace of a fever.  Game on!  We dressed everyone in church clothes and packed up the car.

The drive up was really nice!  We haven't been further north than downtown Everett, so we enjoyed seeing the new places on the way.  When we got to the Canadian border, there were a few very short lines.  We were 3rd in line and had waited about 3 minutes when the lane next to us opened right up, so we slid right in.  As we drove into Canada, I changed our GPS to kilometers.  A 20 min. drive through beautiful Langley, B.C., we parked right next to the Vancouver Temple. 

We walked across the parking lot to the church building where the tours began.  After sitting in the chapel for less than 5 minutes, they took our small group into a classroom in the building to show us a short video about temples and about the history of the church in British Columbia.  When the video ended, we walked back across the parking lot to the temple.

The Vancouver temple is absolutely beautiful.  I haven't been inside a temple that isn't beautiful, really, but there were features that I just loved about this one.  The attention to detail was amazing to me.  The decorating theme in this temple is the province flower, dogwood, and ferns--which according to our tour guide are very West Coast.  There were small dogwood flowers on the handles and tips of the door handles and the chandelier in the Brides' Room was patterned after the dogwood.  Once again, amazingly beautiful.

One feature that our guide pointed out was that since the Vancouver temple is a smaller temple, there is light from outside windows in almost every room.  Sure enough, as we went through, there really was a lot of light coming in through the windows.  I loved it!  After the tour, Kallie reported that her favorite part was the Baptistry and Whitney's favorite part was "the marrying room."  My favorite part was being there with my kids--taking the time to let them know that these things are important to me.  The spirit was incredibly strong through our entire tour.  I was just so grateful that we were blessed to be well enough to enjoy this experience as a family. 

After having cookies and flavored waters at the chapel, we packed back into the car.  We stopped for lunch at a local place, and then stopped off at a grocery store to pick up a few Canadian treats for the kids to try.  (We did a tasting session after dinner when we got home.)  We had a 30 min. wait at the border back into the US.  We felt like we got off lucky with such a short wait--the lines going into the US were much longer earlier in the day.

I am so glad we were able to go!  It was such a fun and memorable outing!

(P.S. Because of my eye infection, I can't wear makeup or my contacts.  I am not a fan of going without either of these things.  Makes me look a little more washed out in this pic, but life goes on, right?)

Whitney's First Person

No paper is safe in my house anymore.  In fact, I've had to start protecting the paper on the printer, even though we have an entire box.  My girls go through it like they go through liquid soap.  (Speaking of, how do you keep your kids from using up all your liquid handsoap?  Our think it's the greatest toy ever.) 

So, last week, my girls raided the paper.  Their drawings are ALL OVER the house.  The most popular art project at our hosue these days involves 138 red Hello Kitty faces stamped on one piece of paper and then a few of the faces are selected for additional features--like black scribbles, circled eyes, and random doodles.

Whitney was hunting for a fresh piece of paper the other day when I handed her a Hello Kitty-ed sheet and said, "Look, it's still white on the back!"  A few minutes later, she came to me with the following drawing.  I was amazed to see that she had drawn a person.  But, her description made the pic even better!  (The "in" and "out" lines were drawn as part of the description.)  "Jonah and the Whale" has been a frequent topic of conversation at our house lately, thanks to Primary and Family Home Evening.

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