A Taste of Spring

Two days after it snowed, we had a day that was filled with a couple hours of warm sunshine. We took full advantage and went outside to enjoy it! Boy, did this make our spring fever worse.

Claire of course jumped on her bike and took off!!

Since Rachel can't ride a bike, the walker was the next best thing. She couldn't quite get the hang of it, but did get pretty good pushing it backwards.

The sun was out so bright, so a hat was in order.

It fit perfect and looked so cute and girly.



Unfortunately, Rachel has a thing with anything on her head and the hat didn't last long. I tried putting it back on, but eventually, Rachel won the battle.

And off to the swings! Claire loves pushing Rachel in the swing, and the feeling is mutual.

Sometimes, she feels a little heavy though.



What could be better in life?

Rachel loves balls! Of course she does try to eat them also, along with everything else.

Claire's babies even came outside to enjoy the weather. Even those with boo boos.

Kitchen Fun

Claire and Rachel love to play a fun game of empty the cabinets. They then proceed to pull everything out of the cabinet with the bottles and kid plates. Then mommy gets to put them all back again. What fun! Claire didn't think it was quite as much fun when mommy had her help put them all back again.

Happenings 2/18/08 - 2/24/08

We had a busy week. Monday was a regular day for us except that we didn't get any mail. J.J. and I both went to work and Sarah stayed with the girls, as she did on Wednesday as well. Wednesday she took them to the library for storytime, which went well, so that was nice. That was one drawback of J.J. going back to work -- not being able to go to storytime with the girls. (I am really missing storytime. I think I liked it as much as the girls do. I am having library withdrawls. I love the library.)Things are pretty busy for me as many things are happening at once -- choosing textbooks, preparing for the conference at the beginning of April, grading papers, and doing my own writing.

Tuesday evening J.J. met the missionaries at the home of a sister investigator to help them with the stop smoking lesson, so I was home with the girls. Wednesday evening J.J. had meetings at the church, so it was girls and me at home that night as well. Thursday evening J.J. had her monthly meeting with our bishop, so I went along to be in the building and played with the girls in the gym while they had their meeting. (Not a very relaxing week at home, but things went pretty well at all my meetings. I'm just not a meeting kind of gal.)

The weather here has been cold, and we had a storm come through on Thursday that was much less than expected. I had a student on Tuesday tell me that if it was icy or snowy on Thursday, she wouldn't be in class. I thought that was kind of ridiculous to plan that far ahead. Well, the "winter storm watch" came on Wednesday (actually the news on Tuesday night was predicting a winter storm watch to occur between 12 am on Thursday to 6 am on Thursday. I had to laugh that on Tuesday they were saying this, even giving times and everything. People here are pretty funny about weather. except tornadoes, which freak me out.) and on Thursday, even though it wasn't even slick out, about 1/3 of my morning class didn't show. Some of them are from towns north of here, which I guess did get somewhat worse weather, but still, people around here are kind of wimpy when it comes to weather. The forecast was for a quarter inch of ice, but we didn't get anything besides rain. (Paul is telling little white lies again. It was slick out in the morning. I went to the gym at 6:45 and slid through one stop sign - luckily no traffic. And when I went to walk into the gym, I had to "skate" on my tennies into the building because the road and sidewalk were pretty slick. But by the time I came out an hour late, it was pretty well melted.) Apparently the grocery stores were crowded on Wednesday because of everyone was freaking out (they all go out to buy milk and bread???). We might just be lucky so far, but none of the weather scares have even momentarily cut off the power at our house, and we might be just far enough south to avoid the bad ice storms.

Friday J.J. and Claire went to Messy Art while I stayed home with Rachel, and while I was here two boys from the ward came over while their mom had a doctor's appointment. J.J. got back at 10:30 or so, (the boys had been over the day before too. Luckily they are nice boys and Claire loves to play with them. Actually all three of her boys came on Thursday because school was cancelled, so her oldest didn't have school and he came to play. They do a good job minding though, when they leave, it looks like tornadoes have been through the inside of our house.) and then I went into the office and did some work until 3:00, when I came home and J.J. went visiting teaching (I've never been a great VT, but I have a partner now that keeps me on top of things. She calls me all the time to find out when we are going. It's great.) Later that evening we dropped our girls off at the Bakes' home -- we trade off babysitting occasionally -- and we went to dinner at a local diner place that has good food for cheap and is always crowded for lunch. It was very good. We had caramel pie for dessert, and it was just graham cracker crust filled with caramel and topped with a dollop of whip cream. It was the most caramel we had ever had in one sitting, but it was great. After dinner we hung some pictures in my office on campus so that my walls aren't bare anymore, then picked up the girls, visited with the Bakes, and then went home.

Saturday J.J. and Claire went to Music class while Rachel and I stayed home, and then I went into work for a couple of hours around noon and then went running at the gym to work off the caramel pie from the night before. Later that evening, I took Claire and her friend Katie to the Murray State basketball game against Indiana State -- ESPN Bracketbuster game -- and we stayed until about midway through the second half. Taking Katie is nice because they can play together and I can watch more of the game. MSU was up 27-10 right of the bat, but ended up losing by 17.

We hope all of you are doing well, and we love you!

Definitely Her Mommy and Daddy's Girl

Rachel is learning early that this family loves to read. She already knows how to hold the newspaper and magazines.

SNOW!

We finally got real snow in Murray. It was just enough to cover the ground and melted by mid morning, but it was really snow. They cancelled school here (I guess, not a big deal since they cancel school for frost or forecasts of ice.) But the girls were very excited to see the snow, well, Claire at least, I don't think Rachel cared other than she doesn't like to wear hats.


Claire started to get into her snow gear, but by the time we got all ready, there wasn't much left.

Rachel may not like hats, but she sure looks darn cute in them.

The Birds

Our yard and next door have been invaded by ugly black birds. There are so many of them it reminds me of the movie "The Birds" and kind of freaks me out. The pictures don't even do them justice. They are really much creepier.

The New "Office Wear"

Claire found a new style to wear to work in. Comfy, not restricting, if you want to go jump in a pool or bathtub at any time if you happen to get something such as paint, markers or glue on you. Plus you can wear it frontwards or backwards as demonstrated by our lovely model, Cute Buns Claire.

Rachel The Crawler

Rachel is now 11 months old and since mastering the art of crawling quite well - she is fast - she is able to get into almost anything she wants. She is much more curious and adventuresome than Claire was at her age and doesn't give up when told "No". She is now pulling up and scooting along things right now. It may get dangerous when she learns to walk. For now, I just keep pushing her down.

"Who me? Into something? I was just looking."

"You can't run from me!"

"Gotcha!"

My Angels

Who could ever imagine losing your patience with one of these angels? I just love to watch my babies when they are sleeping. They are so peaceful and sweet and perfect.

Underpant Heads

Rachel keeps trying to put clothes, towels, blankets or anything else she can get on her head like she is getting dressed. One day she got into the underwear drawer and tried to put them on. Claire and I couldn't resist helping her out and Claire even tried out the new hats herself.

The Dora version....

or Spiderman version.

What do you think of the new look?

Rachel wanted to share with everyone and try out all the different styles. You can see, Paul was really into our fashion fun.

Happenings 2/11/08 - 2/17/08

We’ve had some wild weather in the past two weeks, and it is interesting how different each day can be. One day might be in the 20s all day, and then the next day will be in the 40s or 50s. We don’t get the 40 degree swings in temperature from morning until afternoon like we did in Flagstaff. In fact, there have been a few days where it was 40 degrees in the morning and the temperature kept going down throughout the day. Keeping an umbrella in my bag is always important because it might rain anytime there are clouds.

We actually got some snow last week, and though it wasn’t a lot, it was kind of fun to see. We also had a day or two of 60 degree weather, which is not good because when the warm air is hit by a cold front, that’s when tornadoes hit, and they did. We were pretty lucky when the big storm went through on Tuesday the 6th and caused all the deaths to the south and east of us. We had the missionaries over for dinner (I keep threatening them that if they are late or something, they are going to get Cream Tuna on Toast - sorry mom, but they view it as a real threat and don't believe we ate that along with Mac & Cheese with tuna and peas and Egg & Tuna sandwiches) and while we ate, the wind and the lightning were really going, and our county was in a tornado watch and then warning. I was going out with them after supper, and when they were ready to go I told them we should wait until the warning was gone, and so we did and everything was fine. Missionaries kind of think they are invincible sometimes, and they said to me a few days later that they didn’t think the tornado warning was that serious until they heard about all the death and destruction left behind after the storm that night. (Once again, I am really nervous about the tornadoes. I get all worked up and am constantly checking the news and now our weather radio - which I love, it just goes through batteries too fast.) We visited a recent convert who I had visited with them before, but she missed church on the day she was to be confirmed, and she had asked me to confirm her, so we had a good visit with her. She did come the next Sunday and I did the confirmation, which was kind of neat since that was the first time since my mission that I’ve done that.

JJ started working officially last week, and so we had the babysitter, Sarah, with the girls on Monday and Wednesday. (I am really enjoying work. I am in the office seeing patients while Dr. Fulbright is in the OR all day. He must trust me quite a bit - though I don't know how, since he never even really checked my references out or anything, - but after only spending 2 days with him to see how the office works, I am in the office by myself two days a week. Anyway, I love the autonomy and it's fun to be seeing patients again - at least most of them.) I think they are doing pretty well with her, though Rachel was a little shocked to not have Mommy there for 8 hours on those days. She is not as mellow with anybody as Claire was, and she wants to be with JJ when she is not wholly content, so we have to get used to that some. Claire reacts differently now — she is great for babysitters but when they leave the tiredness of the day catches up and she seems to have a meltdown every late afternoon. In fact, it’s not just babysitters, but when one of us gets back from work or wherever, she seems to break down. Probably the inattention when we adults talk to each other. (I don't know what it is, but according to dad, I seem to be the most common denominator in the equation and therefore, whatever is going on is my fault :) And it's not just one meltdown, it starts when she wakes up and continues throughout the day - all day when I am home and mornings and evenings when I am at work - anytime she doesn't get exactly what she wants. I told Paul that I was about to lose it. I'll tell you, Terrible Twos were nothing. She was an angel at two. It's the Tantrum Throwing Threes that have me in a tizzy. I guess things will get better, but if they don't soon, Paul will have to deal with me in a loony bin along with Claire and her meltdowns)

We didn’t go out on Valentine’s Day because neither of us wanted to go through the trouble on a weekday to get a babysitter, so we went out on Saturday night to a nice restaurant in town and then to some of the MSU basketball game. Thursday night, what began as a nice relaxing evening turned bad when JJ tried to flush our upstairs toilet that a boy Claire’s age had put some toilet paper in to test his theory that toilet paper is what plugs toilets up — he and his brother played with Claire for awhile in the morning. Well, JJ tried to plunge the toilet with our bad plunger and when I tried, it really overflowed and we had lots of water that ended up leaking down to our bathroom downstairs. We got the flow stopped, used all of our towels and a shop-vac to get rid of the water, then I stopped the leak in our ceiling downstairs — it was through the vent — and then went to Lowe’s and bought a decent plunger that took care of the toilet problem in a few seconds. Happy Valentine’s Day, I said to JJ when I came back with the plunger. (My whole plan for the night was to relax, watch some TV and paint my nails. So, after using up all the towels in the house to mop up the floors, getting a bucket to catch the water leaking through the ceiling and while waiting for Paul to come home with the plunger, I did just that. When Paul came home with my new Valentine's Present, I was able to plunge with pretty nails.)

On Friday I drove to Clarksville to have our seat heater replaced — it was a recall — and I expected to stay for awhile, but they finished in about 2 hours, so I came back and did a little work in my office and got some flowers for JJ and then got home in the early afternoon. They also replaced the seat covering of the bottom part of the drivers’ seat, which was water damaged or something when we packed it full of stuff when we moved, which was nice. I think they thought the seat heater did it, but it worked out for us.

Saturday we cleaned the house, which took awhile because of the girls, and Claire played with Katey for awhile. Our next-door neighbors gave us their old breakfast table, which we like, but we now have our old breakfast table with nowhere to take it yet, so we are looking for someone who needs one. Right now it is still in our kitchen, which drives us crazy. (We came with one small table and now we have three tables sitting in our dining room/kitchen/breadfast nook area. I am ready to throw it out, but I don't think the duct tape holding the leg together would stand up against rain and ice.) I also worked on our taxes the last two weeks, which turned out easier than I originally thought. I completed everything on the online tax site I usually use, but it said that it wouldn’t do part-year state forms, so I thought I would have to do those by hand. Well, when I downloaded forms from Arizona’s website, they had links to different tax sites, and one of them said they would do part-year forms. So I had to put all the federal stuff in that one, but that is easier than going through the part-year forms by hand — both Kentucky and Arizona are complicated and use different ways of calculating. It was easier to do online.

For pictures and things, don’t forget to check our blog http://dynomitewalkers.blogspot.com, as JJ occasionally updates it with our letters and photos. We love you all and hope everyone is well.

Valentine's Day

The girls dressed up in festive Valentine's Day gear. Mommy thinks it is a fun day even if her present from the Valentine Fairy is a plunger (long story). The fairy was good to our family and brought chocolate, toys and books. We must have been a loving family this year.

Valentine's Day Photo Shoot

We like to try to get Valentine Day Cards out to people every year, and though most of the time we are late, the "getting a good shot" is always lots of fun, with a little bit of frustration added in.

From the "Claire's Eye View" Collection

Claire keeps getting the camera and adding new photos to her collection. I always love to see things from her perspective.

From up on the stool...

On the counter...

And from down below...

Happenings 1/27/08 - 2/3/08

We hope everyone is well and surviving all the snow. We have had our share of weather in the past two weeks, a bit of snow, cold weather, rain, and today it is in the mid 60s and we don’t even need a coat. A weird thing happened on last Friday — I had a long day on campus, and it was in the low 20s all day, and our little Jetta wouldn’t start. The crazy thing was we were feeding the missionaries that night and I was to arrive just after 5:00, which was when they were coming over, but after spending 10 minutes trying to get the car started, I went inside and called home but it was busy each time I called. (I was busy talking to my friend Shara on the phone and I don't know how to pick up call waiting which I hate anyway. I even thought, "It could be Paul.", but then I thought, "If it is, he knows the missionaries are supposed to be here, so maybe he will call them." And that is just what he did.) I remembered the Elders’ phone number and called them, and they were waiting in their car (in our driveway, waiting for Paul to come home), so they came and picked me up. Later that night, our friends Trevor and Shara came over and Trevor and I went and tried to jump it but to no avail. On Saturday, it was sunny and warmer, so I tried it in the afternoon and after a couple of tries it started and has been fine since. I don’t know if the battery was too cold or what, but it was kind of an adventure.

In other car news, we drove to Clarksville, TN the Friday before to get some little things on our Jetta fixed (how ironic then that it wouldn't start) because there is a VW dealer there. I drove down early, and then JJ and the girls followed later and picked me up and we went to the “shopping” part of town to the Target and Kohl’s, then ate lunch at Chuck E. Cheese (Our first experience there. It being Friday afternoon, it wasn't too crowded and was actually pleasant. Claire of course had a ball!) and then they went home and I stayed until 5:00 when the car was finished. They, of course, did more work than we had expected, and things are pretty good unless the non-starting thing was related to the work they did on the glow-plugs. They had to order one part so we will take it back again in a couple of weeks. It is amazing around here, because of the non-action on smoking, how many places allow smoking. Most of the restaurants we go to ban smoking, but the VW dealership service area was full of smoke. Our car smelled like smoke and so did I after sitting in the waiting room. When I worked in New York City, people in our office smoked in their offices — which they can’t do now — but with so many anti-smoking laws passed since we lived there, it is surprising to see people smoking inside buildings. But that’s what we get for living in tobacco country. Luckily, a lot of places are moving away from allowing smoking.

Our ward has had a bunch of baptisms this month, which is great for our ward. We had 3 in the past two weeks in addition to 2 since mid-December. It is great to have so many new converts. It keeps us busy, though, as one of us or both of tries to go to each one. (I have been going to all of them lately because the missionaries keep wrangling me into playing the piano. I'm definitely getting my practice in. Pretty soon, I'm going to sound halfway decent. The only problem is they can only choose from a handful of songs.) Going to all of these things is sometimes hard because of Claire and Rachel, because of Rachel’s naps or Claire’s wildness. She loves baptisms, but has a hard time for the rest of the program. With President Hinckley’s funeral, it was a similar situation. JJ had some work to do at the church, so she went in the morning and stayed for the funeral while I stayed with the girls and we watched most of it on BYUTV. I enjoyed the talks, and I’m glad I was able to see it. I thought it was serendipitous that Elder Eyring quoted Henry V’s prayer before battle -- “steel my soldiers’ hearts, possess them not with fear! Take from them now the sense of reckoning if the opposed numbers pluck their hearts from them” because I had just watched that movie on campus on Thursday, and the emotion of that scene and the battle was fresh in my mind.

Claire had an exciting day on Friday, as her art class started again after a two-month break, and then JJ, Rachel, and Claire went with two other mothers and their girls to a kids play/musical in Paducah — If You Give A Pig A Party. Claire apparently loved it. (She was literally on the edge of her seat the whole time. Rachel even sat fairly still through about 1/2 hour of it. The second half, she was pretty wiggly and I had to take her out at the end.)That evening, she was invited to spend the night across the street with Katie. Katie’s mom had mentioned the idea last week, and so we planned on it but were worried that Claire would not last the night. But she did, and didn’t come home until noon on Saturday, tired and wound up, of course. But she had a fun time.(I thought, "My baby is too little for a sleepover!" and she is, but if it were someplace other than directly across the street with people that she is really comfortable with, I would have vetoed the idea. Plus, I thought, "There is no way she is going to last through the night." She suprised me. Apparently she kept asking Bridget "Do I really get to stay all night long?" She thought that was really cool.) Katie and her mom and maybe her dad are planning to come to church with us next week.

No one invited us to a Super Bowl get together — we’ve were a regular invite to our neighbors’ party in Flagstaff for 4 years — and since it is not a huge deal for us, we just relaxed at home in the afternoon. I had the game on while I read the paper and then we had supper during halftime. I turned it on again in the 4th quarter, hoping that the Giants win because I don’t like the cheating Patriots (sorry Jason). I really couldn’t believe that the Giants were able to make the last drive, but I was quite excited. The football gods were frowning on the Patriots I guess.

In other news, JJ starts work this week (I am excited, nervous, sad and happy all rolled into one. I hope it all works out.), and things have been crazy at my work. We have had several candidates for new faculty positions here, and I have been involved one way or another in taking them to dinner or to breakfast, but I don’t make a decision on who to offer the position to. It is fun to meet new people, and one of the candidates is from Northern Arizona, and knew who I was although we had never actually met. My classes are going well, and I have been able to do some research in between the time I’ve had to take to do my annual review paperwork and some administrative things.

I can’t think of anything else right now for the past few weeks. We hope all of you who had birthdays enjoyed the attention, and we love you all! (By the way, only about 2 more months until my birthday - just a reminder.)