Oct 26th-It’s a month late-oops!

Last week Craig and I had lots of adventures, we used our daddy weekend to the fullest. You see, every other weekend from Fri at 5:30 until Sun at 5:30 Rachel is with her dad. Craig and I usually try to actually go out or at least stay up late because we essentially have a free babysitter and why not take advantage of that while we can?

So, one of my best friends, Jessy, has a new boyfriend and we decided to “get to know him” a little by spooning his yard. (She said he wouldn’t mind so I promise this isn’t hazing) We drew silly, happy faces on about 50 spoons and stuck them in his lawn. It sounds silly and it is, but it’s not destructive and it’s cheap easy clean fun. Plus it aerates their lawn, yeah that’s it. The next morning we found out that the boyfriend’s mom thought it was someone from church and that the spoons were kinda cute. Although we aim to please it wasn’t the reaction we were hoping for. Craig and I are hoping to spoon the house again because the mom enjoyed them so much.

We spent Saturday juicing grapes. Craig’s parents have a monstrously huge grapevine in their yard and they were kind enough to pick a bunch of purple concord grapes for us. We borrowed their steamer and started the process of making homemade grape juice. It sounds hard but really isn’t. If it was, I would so not be doing it-I AM NOT SUZY HOMEMAKER (despite what Craig says). Although I have become more domestic since being married to Craig, I still believe in buying things (ie: bread, most jam, juice veggies etc) from the store, cooking from a box and asking my mom-in-law to do any hemming. Anyway, one of the perks about “doing grapes” is that your house smells so good. In fact, when we had the box of grapes in the trunk of my Civic (best car ever) my garage smelled like grapes. The process is simple: wash grapes, put grapes in steamer, wait about 1 ½ hours and carefully pour juice into quart jars, seal jars, dump out dehydrated grapes (AKA: grape guts). The only bummer about doing grapes is that it requires you to be home for most of the day because you need the stove on to help dehydrate the grapes and it can over take your kitchen with minimal effort. Now with just 2 cups of sugar, 2 quarts of water and the juice we have a quenching, healthy organic (not important but sounds cool) drink. I feel so domestic!! Martha Stewart, eat your heart out-just kidding- I can’t even hem pants.

This week my blinds came in!!! J J J I’m so excited to be rid of the ugly blinds I have in my 95 inch front window. Craig didn’t have time to install them today, but he promised to do them one night next week when his dad can lend wisdom/experience and his power drill. Oh I am so excited. I know it sounds silly, but as a stay at home mom, I see my blinds quite frequently through out the day and it’s harder to look at ugly ones than it is nice ones(I think). Stay tuned for the conclusion of the new blinds adventure.

Better Late Than Never- from 10/20

Hi there peeps! So I didn't write this week-oops! Anyway, it was the week of Rachel's birthday. She had about 3 "parties" between my family, Craig's family and her dad's family. Not to mention her first friend party. On Friday morning, Rachel and I went to see our friends Jack and Laura. Jack and Rachel are about 2 months apart and look like they could be related. They are also "active" children (Jack more so-honest). Laura & Nate (his parents) lived next door to us when Craig and I first got married. They also have twin girls who are adorable and now 2 and a half. Jack and Rachel and Laura and I became fast friends. We saw them several times a week between church and play dates. Sadly for us, but good for them they bought a house in Nampa (about 20 minutes away) about a year ago. Rachel and Jack always have fun when we go to see them about once a month. Another plus, Rachel plays so hard there that she always takes a little nap on the way home :)
Rachel had her first friend party this week too-it was a big production for me, but so much fun for Rachel. I spent most of the morning dusting/vacumming and sweeping/mopping because one of the girls that came is allergic to cats. I didn't want her to be miserable while she was here and besides, a lot of moms would be at least dropping kids off. About an hour before the party I realized that I had to do some light prep work for the games by decorating a posterboard and making pixie dust for the Tinnkerbell themed party. Oh yeah, don't forget the cake. Cake? Oh crap!! No offense, but I have the best husband out there-Craig made the cake for me while I did prep work and showered. It all came together and I made it by the skin of my teeth-which is how a lot of things work with me anyway. A few moms stayed but most left and the girls had fun taping the "glow" back on Tinks wand and playing. When I suggested a game of pixie tag, the girls all ran outside to play on the swing set-not what I anticipated, but OK with me. After 15 minutes I suggested tag again but then they started chasing each other and screaming outside. Whatever right? Rachel got some great stuff too-paints with paper, a Barbie, a puzzle, candy and a stuffed horse. I requested the gifts be $5 or less because honestly, with how "well taken care of" she is, she doesn't need tons more stuff. One of the moms actually told me it was a great idea because a lot of people have tighter budgets these days and not to mention pressure (real or implied) to give a really nice gift. All these girls are from Rachel's preschool class and were so polite- "Ms. Heather, where can I put my shoes?" "Ms. Heather, can I be done with my cake?" Craig put together goodie bags and frosted the cake and helped whenever and however he could. It was a lot of work, but worth it. Besides, now we have a really cool Tinkerbell tablecloth and matching balloons and streamers too. The only bummer was that I couldn't find my camara and didn't get ANY pix!!! Grrr!! Maybe I can recreate some of the scenes since we still have decor.... I'm still trying to put pix on the blog but am not getting too far. I added one from last year at the bottom though. Have a great week.

Reflections on Rachel

Craig wants me to post something right now, but I'm not feeling very motivated. I spent about 2 hours in Walmart this afternoon grocery shopping, buying winter pj's for Rachel and aimlessly wandering around. I was SO scatter-brained. "Heather acting scatter-brained?! NEVER!!" I know that's what you're all thinking. No, really I have been way more scatter-brained lately, and don't know why. I would go down the aisles and half way thru forget why I was there. Any ideas why? I know I'm not pregnant yet but I'm open to theories.

Rachel's 5th birthday is today!! I can't believe it, I feel so old. Thankfully, I'll never be as old as Craig (by 10days:) She's not a baby any more, she looks like a little kid and likes Barbie and Polly Pocket and Candyland. Where did my little baby go? Today has brought me to reflect on what's been going on my life in the last 5 years. I started out being married, then went thru a yucky divorce and did the single parent thing. It wasn't nearly as bad as it could've been but was still tough. Then, Craig came into my life and everything has been so much better. But still, where did all that time go? I'm starting to realize what an age difference there'll be btwn Rachel and our next baby. It'll be like starting over, but not quite as bad because I already have stretch marks and my hubby will give more support. Rachel will be like an only child though she'll have siblings which is kinda weird but logical. There will always be a special place in my heart for her because she helped me thru the darkest parts of the last 5 years without knowing it. There's the special kind of guilt that I have for being gone so much when she was so little although my mom took care of her while I was at work. I have the inner struggles with being a divorced parent-is she comparing me to her dad when she's with me? How much quality time is she getting with me as opposed to over there? I know these kinds of questions aren't fair because when she's with her dad, it's not all day every day. If I just played with her all day nothing would get done around the house. The situations at his and my houses are very different but still hard not to think about sometimes.

It's time to go, I've written my thoughts of the day down and the last piece of chocolate satin pie is waiting for me. I'm going to try to put pictures up this week so stay tuned. Until then, party on dudes!

Oct 4, 2008 - Heather's Birthday

One of the joys of having so much family around is that we celebrated Heather’s birthday multiple times. First, on Saturday morning Craig and Rachel made Heather breakfast in bed (toast and Ovaltine) and gave her a card (with a basset hound on front) and her presents: a 12-pack of Cherry Coke (each can represented some things she does that make us love her so much) and money for new blinds. Yep, Heather would like some new blinds because all (except for the ones in Rachel’s room) are very old/ugly/etc. Over time, she plans to replace all of them. Yes it sounds vain and prideful but she’s at home all day looking at the copper colored things. They can look really bright when the sun’s on them and show all the dust too. She’s thinking of getting those cool fake wood ones and hopefully have enough birthday money to update 2 small windows. Then we went to the Bolton’s (Heather’s parents) where there was cake and birthday gifts. Then the scene was repeated at the Christensen’s after Sunday dinner. Among other things she received was a kit for a relaxing bath including Pepsi, chocolate and bubble bath.

We spent most of the weekend with family watching conference, although we did find time to look at Lolcats with Stephanie and play Candyland with Grandma Leslie. Rachel tried to persuade Craig to play Polly Pocket, but Craig elected to turn it into Polly racing with the Lego’s. Leave it Craig to improvise and negotiate. 

This was a busy week for Craig at work – it was the end of the quarter for his clients, so he spent most of Friday, Monday and Tuesday working on making sure the numbers were correct. The instability in the markets made for a lot of last minute adjustments (Lehman’s fall made for a lot of ripples in the financial markets). But after a lot of work, the reports went out.

Heather is planning for Rachel’s birthday party. Rachel wanted both boys and girls to come, but when she found out that “boys don’t like Tinkerbell,” she decided it would be better to make it an all girl party. This is the first birthday party with friends Heather’s done and she was nervous about figuring out what to do as far as games go. Thankfully there is something called Google and she found a website to help. Heather scored some great ideas for activities so she’s really looking for ward to the party. Within the 30 minutes it took to find/read the site Heather went from feeling really nervous to feeling like she can do it.

Sept 28 - Living next to the drug house

I apologize for not writing last week. Heather’s grandma Pat (paternal grandmother) was in town from Denver, so we were spending a lot of time with her. Heather spent a lot of time learning about her grandmother’s history, including her grandmother’s grandparents and her childhood. Heather also made dinner for the whole family, and did a wonderful job. Both Heather and Grandma Pat spend a lot of time with Rachel.

Craig had his birthday, which was more like a birthday week since I received calls, letters, cards, e-mails and presents through most of the week. Thank you to everyone for your kind thoughts and generous gifts.

Rachel and Sadie (our new cat) are adjusting to each other. Rachel is practicing walking through the house instead of running and Rachel has learned that Sadie bites. Sadie is learning how to be patient with children, and but still likes to sit in the middle of Heather’s scout stuff. And for some reason, she likes to nibble around the edges of the paper and cardboard in the house.

Heather helped put on a fun pack meeting. She’s looking forward to a Harry Potter pack meeting next month for Halloween. Heather also picked up Halloween and fall decorations that’s she’s looking forward to decorating the house with.

Craig is gearing up for a busy few weeks at work – the end of September is the end of 3rd quarter for his clients. And Craig’s BYU Cougars are in the top 10, so he’s happy.

The really notable thing that happened was on Wednesday. When Craig and Heather came home, there were two police cars behind them. The officers assured us nothing was wrong, so we went inside. The police were there for several hours, and more police came, including a K-9 unit. In the end, we found out that the parents were arrested for felony endangerment to a child and booked in the county jail. Apparently the house was filthy, there was drug paraphernalia all around, and there wasn’t edible food in the house. So the kids were placed in foster care for the time being.

If you want to read the local news report, go to:
http://www.ktvb.com/news/localnews/stories/ktvbn-sep2508-meridian_unsanitary_home.af8b40a0.html.

So part of me is relieved, hoping that this family resolves their problems somewhere other than next door. Part of me wishes that I had known what was going on so I could have reported this earlier. And part of me thinks that everyone will be back to their house next door in the next 6-12 months. It’s hard to watch kids growing up in a home where it’ll be tough for them to be successful. But we do what we can, and leave the rest in the hands of the Lord.

Craig and Heather

Sept 14

Heather and I are now the proud owners of a 1 year old female tabby named Sadie. Being first time cat owners, there have been a few adjustments to make. Heather has gotten three cat books, which she has been reading cover to cover because she doesn’t know much about cats, being raised with dogs and a mom who dislikes felines (The pictures are fun). We picked Sadie up from the Idaho Human Society on Monday, and after spending a day or two mostly hiding under the bed, her curiosity got the best of her and she started exploring.
Sadie likes pouncing, and biting her cat toys, and having her head scratched as well as sleeping on our bed. Last night, she playfully bit Heather’s toes while she was sleeping. Heather must’ve been dreaming and moving around and Sadie just couldn’t resist. Heather eventually tried to hiss at the devious kitty and then slept in peace. We learned that she does not care to have her back petted – supposedly if a cat isn’t petted on the back when its a kitten, it won’t care for it as an adult.
We also found out Sadie likes catnip. When she gets it, she’s pretty wild, zipping around and going nuts. Pretty funny. (Yes, we’re still working on the dosage).
I thought it was pretty funny that Heather didn’t like how quiet the cat is. Cats are known to be fairly stealthy, and carpet is a good medium to be silent. After being surprised by the cat a few times, she asked that I put Sadie’s collar on her. Now there’s a little jingling to give us warning when she’s around.
Rachel is enjoying school and playing with some of the next door neighbors. She played with the two three year old twins and a 1 ½ year old baby. It’s nice to have people close to play with.
The uncle of the kids Rachel was playing with commented on how BYU was going to get trounced by UCLA. I almost went back over to put his nose in a stunning 59-0 win over UCLA, but I decided not to.
That said, it was awesome to watch a BYU team that looked outstanding. Admittedly, UCLA handed half of the points to the Cougars, and didn’t play well at all. However, it was fun to see Bronco Mendenhall pull out the BYU starters in the third quarter so the second-stringers could play.
We also cleaned the garage, which lead to some discussions of how best to store children’s old clothing and baby stuff. No one ever told me that one side effect of babies is a huge amount of STUFF. Thank heavens for taking stuff to DI when Heather isn’t looking.
Heather here: Due to inexperience (thru no fault of his own) Craig may not realize how much mobiles, bottles, lap pads, crib sheets can add up to, so I saved them. I have also saved some stuff from when Rachel was younger like PJ’s, church dresses and pants and some shirts. Anything that I didn’t think would be in style in maybe 5 or 6 yrs was traded in to Other Mothers, a used childrens’ clothing store, in exchange for store credit. Buying everything from scratch each time you have a baby doesn’t make sense.

Sep 9

Rachel made friends in Sacrament meeting. For some reason, she thought that the kids sitting behind us were more interesting than fast and testimony meeting. I can’t for the life of me imagine why. Heather is planning on following up with some playdates.

The weather has been beautiful the last few weeks. Instead of highs in the mid 90’s, it’s been high 70’s and low 80’s, which has been delightful weather for playing in the park, going for walks, and (much to my dismay) yard work. Heather says, “Yay for fall! I’ve been here for more than 10 years, and I still can’t get over how cool the leaves look when they change.”

I also enjoyed the weather going shooting with Chris, his father in law. We shot Chris’s MAS 90 (a close relative of an AK-47) as well as Chris’ “sniper rifle”. The tide bottle never had a chance. Another group of shooters set up on the other side of the hill from us, but we didn’t know that until we heard shots ricocheting over our heads. I was initially concerned, but Chris explained that they were only shooting .22’s, and they didn’t have enough velocity to go far or do much damage after ricocheting.

I also enjoyed a good weekend of college football (a good weekend of college football is defined as a weekend when my team, BYU, wins). I’m excited, although pretty worried, for their upcoming game with UCLA. This game will undoubtedly define the rest of the season for the Cougars.

While Craig was watching football with Chris, Heather went out and got a pedicure. She liked it a lot; and now she has bright white daisies on her red toenails. Heather says, “I’m just glad that my mom paid for it! It’s too expensive to do on a regular basis, but it was fun. I like my soft feet!”

I have switched to a new function at my job. Instead of working as an operations manager at Clearwater, I’ve moved into the data team. The data team plays a support role for development and operations. I’m still not used to not having team members leaning over and asking me questions every few minutes. But I’m learning a ton of new things and growing into my new responsibilities.

Right now, we’re looking at getting a cat from the Idaho Humane society. Not only do they have a great selection, they’re also significantly cheaper – having a vet do the spay/neutering and shots can easily be $100+, whereas the humane society only charges $50. Heather says, “and we’re saving kitties too!”