BABYSITTING

This is how I found Ammon today when I walked in the room with the dress ups. He had put on a few. He was an English policeman, clown doctor I guess. I flew home with the two boys on Thursday. They were quite good actually. It was just tiring for me because I had to be awake and "on" the whole time. I'm used to getting on the plane and reading or napping. They have been great here too. Again I am used to doing my own thing so I get a little tired from no nap and getting up early but all in all it has been fine! Cohen has become my little buddy and that is great by me. He's only asked about his mom in the mornings once. Sorry Kelly. He goes down for his nap and at night without a whimper and is a hilarious mimic of all Ammon does. We all went and got pizza last night and some movies for Ammon to watch because he said "that would be really special". He watched Jungle Book and now has put aside the Ninja Turtle gear and is a panther.

ARIZONA

I love visiting Arizona, the state I grew up in. Especially in the spring. I went for 5 days and thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine, eating out at my favorite places and visiting family. I stayed at my sister Julie's and had a great time visiting with her and her family. Lindsey, Alan and Izzy were there staying with Alan's nephews and niece while his sister and brother-in-law were in Sweden. It was great seeing them again and seeing Isobel walking-so cute. I swear she seems more like 15 months old than 11 months. When she first saw me, she came right to me and I felt so special. Unitl I saw her do that to everyone else. Sad to say, I don't think she remembered me, she is just an extremely friendly little girl! I ate at Cafe Rio, Bajio (kind of like Cafe Rio but different and delicious! Went there twice!), and Pei Wei (sister chain to PF Chang's). We went to Nielson's Custards twice and I had the best concoction of frozen custard, raspberries and brownies. Ymmmm! We fixed a turkey dinner on Sunday and Saturday night had a barbeque with all my brothers and their families and dad and Ann. Needless to say, I am sure I gained weight even though Julie and I walked almost every morning. I LOVE the weather in Arizona (except in the middle of summer). We went swimming one day and I got a little color on my white bod and we went shopping several times and I bought some cute tops and capris for this summer. I bought some cute Lucky jeans too. I keep wanting to buy some designer jeans but I have to lose 8 pounds before I will allow myself that pleasure. Anyway it was a great trip. I would have liked to stay a little longer but had to head home with two cute boys to babysit them while Kelly went to meet Jody in Delaware. Ammon got chopsticks at Pei Wei the night before we left and puts them in the back waistband of his shorts and never takes them out. They are his swords. He wore his ninja mask all the way home so everyone on the planes were laughing at him!

THERE'S A NEW BATMAN IN TOWN

Ammon's gone on to other things, namely Ninja Turtles. He's usually Michelangelo or Donatello. He always asks me if I can see his shell. He also packs around 2 swords in the back of his shirt. He is so funny, so into it. He watches Teenage Muntant Ninja Turtles and acts out each scene. Now that the cape is not being used, Cohen has adopted it. He runs around with his arms in back yelling, "Batman!" Two adorable boys.

SLOWLY BUT SURELY

Here's the latest pictures of the house as of today. Ray kind of took about 2 weeks off so it has slowed down. I hope he's back on task because I can't wait!

Happy Birthday Julie!!

I am just sneaking this in under the wire. It is still March 29th and that means it is still my sister Julie's birthday. She is an amazing sister!! She does so much service for other people - just like my mom did. She is so loving and kind to everyone that I am sure there are about 10 people who count her as their "best" friend. I love spending time with her, hoping more of her goodness will rub off on me. Unfortunately, she has a rather "slow" sister who wrote 3/28 all day and thought her birthday was tomorrow! She didn't even get a phone call from me today because I planned to call tomorrow. What a dummy! Hope you had a great day, Julie! I love you very, very much!!

JET LAG

I am just now recovering from my trip to London. I returned over a week a go and my sleep patterns have finally returned to normal. The fact that we switched to daylight savings time the day before we traveled to London could have contributed to this extended jet lag. I hate jet lag. You go somewhere, spend two days getting over the jet lag just in time to come home and experience it all over again. Oh well, it was worth it. We had such a great time with Lindsey, Alan and Isobel. London is always fun and beautiful but the best sight to see of all was Izzy. Izzy eating everyones food all the time, Izzy crawling from room to room and Izzy just smiling. Constantly. What an adorable child!! Everywhere we went people were excited to see Miss Isobel. She is a real charmer. My next trip is in 2 weeks to Arizona to see Lindsey and family again (they are going there to tend a niece and nephew) and also to visit my family. Then in May, Lee, Alex and I are going to Kaui to our timeshare. Looks like jet lag is in my future still.

London with the Phillips!

Happy Birthday Kell Bell!

March 17th is special to me because it is the birthday of my dad and also Kelly. I really wanted her to be born on his birthday so after a big turkey dinner on the 16th ( a Sunday and we ate at Kelly's grandparents in Blue Lake), we decided to go for a long walk down to the fish hatchery. Mind you, I had done little or no exercising the entire pregnancy. So we walked down and back, 3-4 miles total. Then I had a "sliver " of all the pies we made (about six). We went home and I finished off a 1 lb. Nestle Crunch bar. Seriously! About an hour later I didn't feel very well and started having cramps. Was it the walk and food orgy or labor?? Finally when the cramping didn't quit, we headed to the hospital. I was so bummed because it looked like she would be born on the 16th. A couple of hours before midnight my contrations pretty much stopped. They started up again after midnight with the help of Pitocin and Kelly was born on the 17th after all. I did spend quite a bit of the labor over an emesis basin though. Moral: don't eat much if you think you might go into labor-it was horrible to be so sick during it!! We had thought we were going to have a boy and would have named him Nathan Patrick after my dad and had a girl's name of Summer but when she was born on St. Patrick's day we decided she needed an Irish name and so she became Kelly.
Kelly never thought she was younger than her Chris, Kasey or her cousins. She was always a step behind them, always independent and SOOO easy! I remember Kasey was only 6 months old when I found out I was pregnant with the 3rd child and remember bawling all the way home from the doctor's office. I called my mom and she told me that Heavenly Father really wanted me to have this baby now and that it would be a special child. And she was right. I now have a theory that 3rd babies are really special because Heavenly Father knows you are going to be busy. Kelly always was easy, right from the start. We used to say we could leave her at home without a babysitter and she'd do just fine. She's always been so independent and confident. We loved watching her play sports. She was so good - tiny but tough!
The best thing though has been having her live by me since she got married (Thanks Jody-you are wonderful for having come here for these past years). I've seen her almost every day. Every weekend we go to town, we share stories about the boys and hang out together. She's one of my best friends (Kasey, Lindsey and Alex are my other ones but they don't live near me). I guess that I will have to go out and find friends my own age now that she if moving. Happy Birthday Kelly-I love you so much and will miss our almost daily contact so much. You are a wonderful mother, wife and daughter and I love you to pieces!! Thank you, thank you, thank you for letting me share these past few "extra" years with you!

p.s. sorry there are no cute pictures but I am posting from London where we are having a great time with Linds and family. Isobel is bsolutely adorable!!

OFF TO MERRY OL' ENGLAND!

Here's the latest picture of the house with a picture of one of the workers, Ammon. He loves to go out every Saturday with Lee and "work". His work considers getting as dirty as he possibly can. Last week he was walking on all fours (he was a dog) through mud puddles, barking. I wish I had had my camera with me that day. It was unbelievable!

We leave on Monday to go to London and visit Lindsey, Alan and Isobel. I am excited to see their new flat, hang out at the amazing parks in London, see "Wicked" again, and play with Izzy! This will be Lee's first real visit there so it will be fun to help show him around. We are going to the Cotswalds too! I love London so it's always fun to go back there. Cheerio!

THE ROOF IS GOING ON THIS WEEK!

Here is the latest picture!

They still haven't put a roof over my bedroom but things are progressing. At least they will be able to work even if it rains now!

WORK CONTINUES SLOWLY DESPITE RAIN

Here is the latest picture of the outside of the house with most of the trusses up except over the bedroom on the left. The rain continues and is hampering the sped of the work. Darn! I did pick out windows yesterday and got books for picking out the rock for the front so some progress was made. I just want it to go faster. Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day-like when my roof is done so they can work anyway!

SNOW DAY!!
Every decade or so we get snow in McKinleyville. Here is the view outside our rental at about 11:00 this morning. There was a lot more snow earlier but I didn't take a picture then. I was taking it easy, having a snow day. That means staying inside, leisurely reading, not exercising, not putting makeup on and not doing my hair. I did finally take a bath and brush my teeth just so I could stand myself.I am in sweats and a sweatshirt and staying warm. I would love to make cinnamon rolls and have hot chocolate but I am on the Cabbage Soup Diet this week and that doesn't fall in that diet. Darn! (I am 2.5 pounds over the goal I set to be at for this time so have to resort to drastic measures). I usually don't fall for extreme diets but have found this works well to jump start a healthier (Weight Watchers) diet or to just lose few more pounds to keep me motivated on WW. I don't make the soup the way they do (it's horrible!) - I just make a regular vegetable soup with cabbage. What I really hate about the weather though is that the builders aren't working on my house!! Oh well, I did finish my taxes today and now I think I'll watch an episode of Oprah I taped, read a good book I'm reading (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan) and take a nap. Oh, and have some cabbage soup and vegetables. Yum.

NEW PICTURES OF THE HOUSE

Here's an update of the house. They framed in the 2nd floor. The trusses go up next week. The pictures show the great room with higher ceiling than the kitchen. The entry is 2 stories high. I wish I had taken pictures of the view from the 2nd floor-it is really gorgeous. Will do that next week! I am getting excited!

DISASTROUS VALENTINE MEAL
Last night Lee had a Stake Presidency meeting so we had dinner reservations at 8:15 pm. We have a restaurant at our local (small, 1 gate) airport that we go to sometimes when it's a last minute thing. It's owned by two couples who went to school with Chris (The Lakey boys, one married Mandy Cherney). We try to support them occassionally even though the food is just "okay". We got there and were seated only to have Mandy ask if we minded being moved to a smaller table about 15 minutes later. No problem. We ordered filets and beer batter prawns. Our salads and bread came and they were good. We waited for our meal to arrive. And waited and waited. An hour later, still no dinner. It got pretty comical as we listened to everyone around us complaining. We kept joking about it and laughing at the absurdity of this small restaurant being so ill prepared. Our waiter even mentioned that we seemed to be having a great time, not knowing that we were laughing at them. Finally, dinner came almost an hour and a half later. Filets were overcooked, marsala sauce on them horrible, mushrooms almost non-exixtent and prawns were not beer battered but in some sickly orange water sauce. But hey, because of the wait, dessert was on them. We took home our carrot cake (didn't want to wait longer) and Lee had some last night and said it matched the meal. Needless to say, the Silver Lining won't see us for another Valentine's meal but at least we didn't feel like we had completely wasted $70 since we like the couples and could at least support them in their venture. If only they would get more cooks..... We did have a wonderful meal of salmon and yellow fin tuna last Friday at Jambalaya in Arcata-a great restuarant!! Next year we'll go there.

WATCHING SUPERMAN, THE MOVIE, WITH SUPERMAN AND CLARK KENT

Ammon spent the night last night with us. It was hilarious. He has been Superman for quite a while now. He always has his Superman cape on (thanks Aunt Kasey). So he has the cape on and we start the movie. He runs out of the room suddenly and reappears with a shirt on over the cape and Grandpa's reading glasses on. Now he's Clark. A little later in the movie he is tearing off the shirt and glasses and has become Superman. He is now standing on the coffee table with his arms up like he is flying. Mind you he is not looking at us to see our reaction he is just totally into character. Just before Superman becomes Clark again, Ammon is redressing with the shirt and glasses. He has the movie completely memorized so that he can dress right on cue. When it was the time that Lois and Superman fly in the sky, he comes over to me and says, "Lois, you need to stand up so we can fly!" So we did. Seriously, it is the funniest experience in the world.

PROGRESS

Last week they got the first floor framed in. It is exciting to see how the rooms are laid out and imagine living in there. I wish I had made some rooms larger but then again, there is only two of us at home and we are supposed to be downsizing.

I need some opinions on lighting for my kitchen. I will have a black square table in the kitchen and kitchen island with granite on it. (white cabinets, black granite) I want pendant lighting over both. Here are my two options. Please let me know what you like best.

#1 Pottery Barn: http://www.potterybarn.com/products/p3442/index.cfm?pkey=clgthngpen

I was thinking of three small white pendants over bar, one large over table.

Choice #2-Home Depot: I couldn't get these to pop up. Go to Home Depot and, under lighting , check out -Hampton BayBrushed Nickel w/Frost Glass Island Light
Model EJJ7113 for over the island and Hampton BayBrushed Nickel w/Frost Glass 1 Light Pendant Model CEP8191 for over the table. Let me know.

NEW HOUSE
Go to:http://www.eplans.com/house-plans.hwx/Q/Plan.HWEPL11097
It's a sketch of what our new house supposed to look like when it is done. We changed the floor plan quite a bit so that it has 2 walk in closets in the master bedroom in between the bedroom and master bathroom which now is in the back with a jacuzzi tub and walk in shower. The great room and kitchen are also all open to each other. It is now about 2800 square feet. Some walls went up today-more pictures soon!

IT'S STARTED!!!!
Yes, finally! They've started building our new house. There is an end in sight to searching through boxes in the garage to find things. The pictures above show the site of our house. Hopefully it will be done in 5-6 months depending on the weather. I am just so excited that it has begun. Will keep you posted on updates!

SISTERS
Life is extra good these days. My sister Julie is visiting from Arizona. (If I knew where my camera was I'd post a picture of us together.) Julie is probably the nicest, loving person I know. She takes after my mother. She is always doing things for others and has a million friends. I love her to death. It is so much fun to have someone here to go walking with, out to lunch and the movies. (I do all these things with Kelly too but we have to worry about babysitters somethimes!) We are having so much fun! I love that we can talk about anything, reminisce about our mom, and just giggle together. Sisters are the best. That's why I am so glad I had so many girls so they could have each other and I could share in the fun too! I just wish Julie and I could live close to each other. Maybe someday when we retire, Lee and I can spend part of each year in Arizona. Right now I'm just grateful for this week. Love you Julie!

LOSING THINGS

One of the most annoying things about getting older is that you misplace things all the time. When I was younger, Lee used to askwhere something was and I'd always send him in the right direction. Last week I took a picture of the site of our house which has started and planned to post it. I also took a picture of the entry of a house I wanted to show to our contractor. Now I can't find our camera. It's driving me absolutely crazy!! We are in a rental and I don't have a place for everything but a lot of it is age related. It is the pits. So I will eventually show progress of our house, maybe with a new camera. I also "lost" the closing statement on the sale of our house this summer and needed that for tax purposes. After looking all over I finally went and got another copy from the title company. I'm pathetic.