What have I done in a week?

1. Took down the living room mini blinds, scrubbed them and put them back up. Did you know they are a very light off white? We thought they were beige. Ha. Of course the set for the double window was too big for the tub, so it needs some TLC, but you can't see the spots until its dark outside and you look from the inside. :-) The only down side is that the oxyclean I used (or my powerful muscled scrubbing) took off some of the paint. But you have too look to see. Plus they are easier to open and close! Sweet. Cost=FREE

2. I cleaned the oven door. You know the glass window where you can look at what you are cooking? Well, ours was pointless as the only thing visible was brown shadows. I got out a screwdriver and took the cover off of the insulating part of the door. Started cleaning the glass there and realized, I have to take that piece of glass out, since the brown stuff was on the other side of it. So I got the drill and the hex heads out, a few minutes later I had the piece of glass in my hands. I tried just using dish soap to clean, but that stuff has been on there for probably 10 years, so I got smart and dumped some powdered dishwasher soap on it then scrubbed that around with a damp cloth. Most of the time I use a small amount of liquid soap in the dishwasher, and reserve the powdered for the nasty baked on pots and pan. It worked. Maybe 30 minutes later I was screwing the whole thing back together. Cost = 2 hours of a whiney baby (she was just acting clingy, so she sat on the floor by me and complained. It happens.)

3. I put up a towel rack in the guest bathroom. Anyone that has been to our house might know that the guest bathroom was once the home of the washer and dryer. Some previous owner put in a half bath. Its tiny and pretty scary. But there was already holes and anchors in for a towel rack so I had a really easy time screing in the joints, then hand tightening the anchoring thingy. We didn't have a screwdriver thin enough so I ended up with a butter knife. But, hey we can now hang towels in there! Cost = $1 a few motnhs ago? (we got two at a yard sale for $1 and now one is up. Give me some time and I will get the second one upstairs!

4. I got food poisoning. Yeah Tuesday was fun. I was supposed to go visiting teaching, and once Daniel got home I got in the shower, but once I got out, I sat down and it felt so good to not be standing. He called and informed them I wasn't coming. Cost = not time hanging with soem awesome chicas

5. I got visit taught. Is that the right phrase? I loved the topic for this month. It was just an all around Women are amazing! Divine nature rocks! It was a total throw back from being in Young Womens. Cost = vacuuming? Just kidding, this was just a great thing.

6. I didn't blog. At all. Its impressive. I even started a couple of posts and either Alice wouldn't let me finish them, or they ended up sounding so dumb I decided whatever. Cost = bored readers. I know all of you religiously check here, or are directed here by Daniel's posting in his little forum that we have new Alice pictures. Either way the ticker is going up and that makes me feel important in a not so important way.
I was almost inspired enough by cleaning the oven door, to post a tutorial (since its impossible to find one online. I looked, I know) but I couldn't find a second battery for the camera. I think the rechargable batteries are in some Alice toy...one she doens't even play with very often.

7. Oh and I got a bunch of the music for RS picked out. I have at least a month totally done, and a few other weeks. All I need now is soem willing pianists. Or, with my luck, to get released and into a new calling. Actually, if that happens I am totally cool with it. I have had that calling for 3 years now I think. But, thats how calling work in our ward sometimes. Since its a student ward, most of the ward is transient. That means if you don't leave, they tend to keep you in the same calling. I think thats partly because its easier. My calling I had before this was as a teacher and I was in that calling for 4 years. Finally the relief society president said, you have had this calling since before I got mine, and I have had 3 sets of counselors and she released me. I was sort of excited at the time, but soon I missed teaching. Oh well, I am sure thats how things go. Even when you are excited for a change, there are things you miss about the past.

How to get your sleep!

Alice is sleeping.

And, she has been asleep in the bed since 9. She was probably asleep around 8:30 and then she did not wake upwhen I put her down. Yes, you read that right.

I sort of feel like a 4th grader at her first sleepover...its probably a high induced by the lack of irresponsibility, or freedom from opression, or something.

So how did I do it? I read up on high needs infants, and what to do with them to get them to sleep. Maybe Alice isn't as bad as some babies, but trust me, this girl is needy. Then I decided to implement some of the suggestions.

1. I let her sleep. As much as she wanted, everytime she acted like she wanted to. There was a point where my legs were falling asleep because I had been holding her sleeping for a while. I got a foot rest. Problem solved. (Yes we do attachment parenting)

2. We did all sorts of 'wind down' type things. We found the sling, and carried her around in it for 30-40 minutes. She was physically opressed, but still allowed to stare at things, and it worked.

3. We fed her. I tried to get her on a schedule of eating in the day...12 lunch, 4:30 dinner, 7:30 cereal snack. Yes, I drugged her with carbohydrates.

4. We watched some old school Tom Hanks movie. Alice was asleep in bed the whole time. Happy happy times!

Alice gets Pictures!

So Julie came to visit and we took Alice pictures. Alice was not having it, and in all the pics we got one 1 that she was smiling in. So here are a few...including the one smile!

What's up with the Olympics?

Tonight I figured, lets watch some online Olympic action. I mean all the real awesome sports aren't even broadcast.

Like Fencing, table tennis, and the classic Handball. Handball, that's silly enough to maybe even be interesting. Besides, its China verses Brazil. Those Latino's are going down.

Imagine my suprise that in order to watch online you have to download Microsoft Silverlight. Yeah, that's right, only the biggest names can let you watch the Olympics. NBC on TV, ATT on phone TV, and Microsoft for online coverage. Hmmm, oh yeah, the man is in charge of the Olympics. I think that sort of defeats the ideas behind the Olympics, but whatever.

So I download the software and install it.

Then it tells me I can't watch with the option I gave. I told them I watch broadcast TV, NBC with an antenna. Not good enough to watch it online.

What are you kidding me?

I said I have Sunflower (The local monopoly of a cable company) and tada, I am allowed to watch it.

To be even more annoying the Silverlight software shut down this browser window while I was writing the blog. So much for watching Handball. Microsoft, stop taking over my computer. There is a reason why I was using Firefox.

Nights of Torture

Alice has started being evil at night. Her sleep schedule got really messed up when she was sick 2 weeks ago, but I thought we had recovered.

Lets just say Monday night she woke up wailing at 2am...refused to take a pacifier (boob or otherwise) and was an all around butt. At 3am, we got up. We got up and watched half of Pygmalion. At just after 4am she decided boobs were her friends and nursed herself to sleep. Lets just say Daniel and I were both tired yesterday.

Last night was a similar action. Only instead of it beign 2am, she just refused to go to bed. We finally sat her between us, with youtube music videos playing. I was almost asleep when she decided that she wanetd to sleep. It was midnight. Midnight!!! I don't even stay up that late.

So now I am sort of torn. I am glad that she is weaning herself from the pacifier, but why am I becoming the pacifier of choice? (She will literally scream more if you try and put the pacifier in her mouth) She also is talented enough to pull up on things that she can grab, chair legs, people's clothes, etc; so, if we even wanted to put her in the crib we would need to lower the mattress. In that case there is no freaking way we could get her in while she was asleep. She already wakes up and freaks out as it is.

My hope is that she has teeth that are just under the surface and driving her mad. I even gave her Tylenol last night in hopes we could all just go to bed. I don't know if it helped or not, but an hour later she was ready to sleep.

I miss the pacifier. :-(

Rebecca says Hi

So... Rebecca wanted me to post. So I guess I'll just ramble. I've been approved for debt(financial aid)! But I've also been approved for some debt resistance(a grant!). It's pretty cool. I'm planning on going into debt as much as they let me so that I can pay off other debt. I.E. our HELOC and or Rebecca's financial aid debt... I don't really feel like posting. So I'll just save this and maybe fix it up later.

Not going to bother to fix things. I still haven't gotten my financial aid, but it's something I'll work on. School has started, it's kinda annoying. :-( I have so much small things I'm supposed to do. It = lame.

So I'm going.

The Cricle of Life

Oh yes, an homage to Elton John, or Disney, or lions.

So yesterday I found out that someone died. He was a member of the Stake presidency for years, and he was even my professor in pharmacy school for a couple of semesters. I was rather surprised. I mean, I know that the stake asked everyone to fast for him, but I didn't think know why really. I just knew that he had fallen sick quite suddenly. His obituary was rather impressive, I guess I didn't know how big their family was. Sometimes its sad when you think of someone's father/husband/brother/grandpa dying. I think that its mostly sad because you know that the person will be missed. I am glad that I know (and the family knows) that families are forever. I can't imagine what it feels like to think that everything just stops after the mortal existence. I don't even want to try. Sometimes things make you grateful for the things you tend to take for granted. Yay for the gospel in our lives. For that matter, yay for the comfort that we have through the Holy Spirit and the hope we can have because of the atonement.

So now I am getting to prepare a veggie tray for 10 (as if I know how much that is...yeah not really). And, for the record, the internet doesn't seem to know either. So I will just prepare a veggie tray, and maybe take along some extra stuff in baggies.

Rachel bought a car. It is a 96 something or other, and maroon. I remember all the important details, or rather the only important detail - the color. She also has the weekend off so she is visiting!!! I am so stoked!

Oh, and in other cool news, someone else is getting induced Monday. I bet this will be the longest weekend of her life. I am sort of excited and have started making little baby booties out of eco friendly felt. Yeah, thats what they call it now when they make it out of recycled pop bottles. Thats right, between the felt and stuff I already had around the house, they will cost me next to nothing while being tres chic, and cute to boot!

And somehow it must be dinner time...thats what Alice is implying through her whining and pinching...not to mention the constant drooling. She makes me think of Pavlov's dogs. :-)