O MO DES TO...

Dave and I just got back from a whirlwind weekend of driving over 400 miles in the rental car and a whole lot of house hunting. We are moving in less than a month for Dave's fellowship in Modesto, CA. We are thrilled, but nervous. We went out this weekend to find a house... or a neighborhood. Well here is what we should have taken photos of and didn't...

*Dave and Heidi in our BRIGHT BLUE BOMBER (aka an almost brand new, with the yummy new car scent, Toyota Corolla).
*The 4 houses we looked inside.
*The house across the street from a rental with a whole family exercising (or cheering on the exercisers) in the GARAGE! Yes, an actual gym was set up! HA!
*The millions of houses we drove by looking for good neighborhoods.
*The 2 AM party by the boys in the next door hotel room... we FINALLY got earplugs from the front desk after their failed attempts to shut up the "Boys 'r' us" next door. (Yes that is how they answered the front desk's phone call and we heard every word.)
*Being welcomed by the hotel receptionist who answered our question, "what is there to do in Modesto?" With ONE word, "NOTHING!" Sounds great.
*The car with the Mexican flag tucked into the hood.
*The car two minutes from the previous car with a Mexican flag tucked into the dash board
*The lack of clothes on people (coming from Michigan cold to Modesto warmth was a little shock).
*Being together without having to worry about Anna. Thank you to our WONDERFUL friends the Nelsons who bravely took on another child and made her happy all weekend! thank you thank you thank you! (:
*Having the other woman in our life with us ALL DAY LONG --- Jill, the GPS queen.

By Far the highlights of the trip were:
* Dinner and dessert at Sadie and JT's with Amy and Matt! We are SO excited to live so close to friends! I might spend more time out of Modesto playing! (:
* Dinner at Dewz with an administrator and his wife where Dave got what looked like an entire cow's leg (Prime Rib), bone and all, on his plate. It was ridiculously big and very good! I REALLY wish I had my camera, but perhaps that isn't kosher at a white linen restaurant?
* Finally being able to identify with our future home town, meet administrators, and see the hospital Dave will be working at.

Though we don't have a home, it was a successful and fun weekend.

Some recent events...

HMP Formal Night...

Dave's program puts on a formal each spring. It was a lot of fun this year, especially the company we sat with! Last year we (the girls) were not quite sure what to wear, this year we didn't talk about it and look below at what we all showed up in! Pretty hilarious especially since we four are the only "Mormon girls" in the program! Ha. I am sure some began to wonder. Dave and I had our camera and didn't get it out. These photos are pirated from Carrie!Me, Abby, Carrie, and Jess I sure love these girls and will miss them!!! (Thank you Carrie for letting me borrow your photos).

GREEN AND BROWN BABY SHOWER....

We had a fun shower for Carrie who will have a baby this summer. Here's what it looked like. Thanks to the Amazing Rebecca for a beautiful home, Amy and Jess for helping me plan. Carrie the Mom to be and her Niece My family's favorite Citrus Lemonade



I made cupcakes that looked like babies. I think they turned out pretty cute.

The guests playing games

Close up of Rebecca's art of decorating

The Hostesses and Carrie!

Opening presents

Jess, the Hostess of the mostest

Cooks in the kitchen

"Mommy you talkin' to my cousins?"

We had a great night with friends over for our "last" big get together. Soon afterwards Dave took Anna up to bed. My mom called about 10 minutes after that asking to skype. We told her yes, but Anna was asleep.

We started to skype and in the monitor we hear... "Mama what you talking about?" We continued to skype, then a few minutes later hear... "Mommy, you talkin' to my cousins?" We burst out laughing and had to go get Anna out of bed. She LOVES to skype and it really helps with the long distance we have between us. Anna always says, "my cousins live far far away!" It doesn't feel like that so much thanks to good olde skype!



During our conversation Anna squished our heads together and my family took this photo! (you can see Anna's hand in my hair)

FUNNY TIMES, we are still laughing....

Lillie Park

Here are picks from our recent (okay is was like two weeks ago) morning out at the park. We had a great time, just us. We love Ann Arbor for their parks and feel like we haven't even begun experiencing them. I drove one day from the hospital to a park about 10 minutes away and counted that I passed 8 potential parks- 2 with two different playgrounds (and one dog park) we could have turned off too. It is amazing.

Picnic after playing at the playground and before a walk around the lake.

Dave exhausted from late night basketball.

Aren't these three hilarious. I love Mia's tongue.

Anna loving her apple

Still loving that thing.

She held onto it until she fell asleep on our walk and dropped it out of the jogger.

I love these three! My 6 brown eyes!

HE DID IT!

DAVE FINISHED HIS LAST CLASS YESTERDAY!!!

I am so thrilled for him and proud of the work he has done over the course of the last two years! One more assignment to go and he will be offically DONE with his Masters.

Graduation is next week and we are so excited!

And just for fun, here are my favorite quotes from Anna this morning:
"Look at my silly hair"
"I made a mess of my bib" (and that's not to mention the spaghetti that was EVERYWHERE else!)
"I had a noodle on my arm"
"My Elmo panties all wet" (we tried no diapers this morning... it didn't last long)

A: "Mommy need to cut fingernails and toenails?"
H: "Yes I Do"
A: "Oh Man!"
(actually she said something really funny after this, but I cannot remember it)
A: "That be ouchy?"
H: "No, no ouchies"
A: "oh man!"

"Mia needs to cut her fingernails and toenails...that be silly!"

Behind... according to who? & other thoughts.

**Okay since I haven't really blogged since the middle of March I thought it was time to catch up... but I know the feeling of being behind stems from pressure I put on myself to keep up with all that I have going on. So, I started my post with the title "behind", but honestly, I have kept up on so many other things during my blogging lapse that I cannot say I am behind, just keeping up with life...does that even make sense? Perhaps not. I just don't like hearing people say, " I am a bad blogger," or "I SHOULD have blogged and haven't," or "I cannot blog about today because I need to catch up first." I don't like these phrases because who is the BLOG KING? Blogs are a fun way to share thoughts, photos, your life and other random stuff, the whens or the whats are not set in stone. I have had this outlook on my journals for my whole life and decided recently that I will just do the best I can to make a journal, note about my day or what not, and know that if I don't get to writing, hopefully I am doing something else worth while and hopefully my memories won't fade too soon... Am I still making no sense? Oh well, there's the inside of my head for you and here is another part.....

** Had a CRAZY, but great weekend. (okay you can skip this if you like, I seemed to ramble more, but hey it is my journal right?)
Friday: Worked an hour and a half, then ran errands (perhaps last stop to Randazzos? Will blog about later), cooked a delicious salsa verde enchilada dish along side my hubby, and got another "daughter for the weekend" (Audrey), then gave a spiritual thought about inner beauty to the young women, and had started our three part series of watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This is one of Dave's classic movies that every time we have tried to watch over the course of the past 10 years I have fallen asleep and he has finished. I think that we have only tried twice, but I laugh at that. This time I resorted to watching increments that I could handle. Not that I don't enjoy it... it is slap stick stupid humor which we both love... just cuddling with Dave late and night gets a little toooooo comfortable.

Saturday: Woke up to Anna at 6:40 asking where Audrey was... "No it isn't time to wake up yet" was my thought, but alas the excitement was too much to handle for these little friends. Audrey woke up shortly after that. Cooked in the kitchen all morning from 7-11 getting cleaned up, cutting fruit, cooking breakfast, making salads and preparing for a fun event. Helped get the girls down for a nap and was off to a baby shower for my friend Carrie. I will post photos later... it was amazing. Came home cleaned up the house with the girls, Anna had a meltdown, took the kids to kids swap (thank you Abernethys you truly saved the night!) and went to dinner and ice cream with the Owens and shopped at the M den. I have really wanted a Michigan t -shirt and haven't gotten one... I found one and am happy. Came home, got the girls to bed, did my primary lesson and started part two of the movie. ( Mind you I looked and the movie is only an hour and a half long). Started to fall asleep. zzzzzz

Sunday: Got to sleep until 7:20 today, Anna and Audrey still excited to see one another. We played, bathed, ate breakfast, and rushed to church. It was a great Sacrament on the Resurrection. I found myself deep in thought and forgetting the toddlers sitting on the bench with me.
*I have been trying to focus more on the Savior in my life lately, especially since the beginning of March. I have wanted to learn more about His life and resurrection, and how I can be more like him. I realized that though I am praying and reading the scriptures almost everyday and learning more about prayer and family that my testimony of the Savior had not been progressing. As I came to this realization I noticed that I began to blame the outline of lessons at church or subjects in Sacrament. I FELT like often times other parts of the gospel were such a focus that we lost touch with the head of our Church. I belong to The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter Day Saints and should know my Savior. One day I was thinking about this and I realized that MY lack of getting to know my Savior or trying to emulate him in my life was no ones fault but MY OWN. Worshipping on the Sabbath is only one step in our spiritual growth (and a very important one),but it is our own personal study, prayer, meditation, and worshipping that will help us grow. I actually have learned this from an example not of my same faith. I hope to try harder to draw nearer to the Lord and live a life pleasing to him, one that others see as Christ like and want to know him because they know me (another thought from someone not of my faith.)

*I am also thankful today for rejuvenating Hymns like "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" and the other hymn we sang.. with the SAME title, but different lyrics and tunes.

**I am a little flustered right now due to my crazy 2 year old who has been in bed for over an hour and a half and WON'T sleep, though she is very tired. I told myself she would stay there until she did, it might be a long day.

Two reasons why she won't sleep:
1) fell asleep in the car when I took a friend home from church, got 20 minutes and won't sleep again (this unfortunately used the work and I am realizing now that it doesn't fly anymore.)
2) She has a cute friend staying with us for the weekend. And though her friend is being a gem, she has been a little off. I think she is a little too excited to sleep.

Worries about the situation:
1) Becoming more of a jealous mommy's girl... that cannot work with my job and with babies down the road
2) Not taking naps... she is NOT ready for this stage, is a royal mess if she doesn't sleep.
3) We wanted to transition her to a big girl bed once we move, but I don't think it will work, there is no way she would stay in it.
4) I hope she behaves better in a couple of weeks when we leave her with the same friend for 4 days. Yikes. Dave and I were not her biggest fans yesterday from about 4:30 - 5:30, major meltdown like I have never seen before! Good luck Nelsons. I will start my prayers now.

Okay as I continue this post she is finally asleep... 2 hours later! Geez! Now Audrey will probably wake up. I was counting on a nap for myself... think I slept for 20-30 minutes, just enough to get me energy to blog. (another 45 minutes later of my ramblings she woke up again... what is her deal, I rocked her and she is back asleep...) Audrey on the other had is still a sleeping angel! (: Perhaps binkis are better than I thought.

**Life is so unexpected.
I just read Friday night about one of my best friend's nieces who left this world suddenly at only 4 months (?) old. She died unexpectedly in her sleep. I balled that night, haven't stopped thinking about it since, and and almost in tears as I write. Life can change as ANY moment and each second is a special one. We are lucky to be who we are where we are. Life is a miraculous gift!

** There are tons of unpacked, half packed, and full packed boxes all over our house. We move in 5 weeks. I am excited to have 3 days off this week to get the ball going again. I want to get ahead of the game so we have time to play!!

Cadbury Eggs

A: Going through her Easter basket, "I 'mant' (want) to eat my chocolate Mom"
Me: "After dinner, if you eat your chicken, you can have your chocolate"
A: "Okay" and proceeded to eat ALL of her chicken.
M: "Do you want me to break it for you to make it easier"
A: "No, I 'mant' to eat it like this. It's yummy yummy yummy!"

A little later,

A: "It's my 'fay brit' Mommy"

LIKE MOTHER LIKE DAUGHTER. YUMMY CADBURY!

She looked up and gave me this funny wrinkley smile