Spring Break

I guess I'm on spring break too! Even though I have to work tommorrow. Jason is at a convention in TX at the moment and I just don't go to bed when he is not around. I clean and mess around on the computer till midnight. There are no seminary kids to wake me in the morning or should I say wake Josh who wakes me up. I did do a little spring cleaning today and I must say my garage looks fabulous! I keep going out there to look at it because it is so nice and clean. It was difficult to do because of all the dead bugs/spiders, but I got rid of them. Josh enjoyed the day in the garage too. He was covered in dirt when we were done. In other Josh news, he qualifies for Johnson County's Toddler Program for speech since he is not catching on that words are cool. It was funny when they came to evaluate him, he didn't say anything at all. Not even babbling. He did laugh a little and flirt like he always does, but didn't really talk. I was like he does say stuff although the next couple of days I realized how quiet he is in the middle of the day. Mornings & evenings he does make noise I swear. Maybe he knows that we need help learning words so he was extra quiet to make sure we qualified. Anywho, Josh needs to learn to use his words. Daddy, Uh-oh, Again aren't going to cut it any longer...he should have 50 words by now and forming sentences. It will be nice to have someone come to the house and show me how to help encourage him to speak and help us set goals.

Ode to Our Builder, Martins Inc.

Here is my endorsement for Martins Inc. If you are going to build a house in Gardner, KS (or Olathe area), then you need to build with Martins, Inc. They stand by their work and they are quick to repair things that are covered on your year warranty. I have just been very impressed by them and it has made my new house buying experience very nice...so drum roll please.....We are getting a new roof !!! I'm not sure if they ever figured out why our roof keeps blowing off. Granted it is windy, but it is ridiculous how often we loose shingles. The manufacturer came out and took samples of the roof and the builder was talking with them and the roofing company and the builder called today to say that we will be getting a new roof. It is such a relief that we won't have to take any action to get the problem fixed. Exspecially now that we have lived in our house for a year and I think we have had our roof repaired about 6 times and we are currently missing shingles. Such a relief. Yea to a new roof & Ode to the Builder who takes care of us!

Ding Dong the Binki's Gone & TP Go Down the Hole

So last weekend we went to GM & GP Drapers house to get our taxes done. Josh ended up getting cranky and needing a nap. GM got all bent out of shape because he was unhappy at her house. Heaven forbid he is unhappy at GM house. We didn't bring a binki to comfort him and GM wouldn't have that so she went to the store & bought him a gerber nuk...she didn't realize that she bought him the rubber one that was brownish color rather than the silicon? one that is clear so he wouldn't take it. I about died laughing. Anyway after this incident, Jason & I decided that Josh is too old and shouldn't be relying on a binki so they have mysteriously disappeared. Josh every now and then points to the drawer where they used to stay during non-sleep times and we both look at the empty drawer. So sad. He is doing just fine without it.

So on to my next story. Last week Josh had his first toilet experience....this is how it was.

Just about 2 rolls of TP. He found an extra one under the cabinet. You can see it there on the floor.

Yesterday he had another experience which I didn't photograph. I was fuming mad. This time it was in the master bathroom & he flushed...probably several times. There was water all the way to the sinks. Tell me why again do they put carpet in bathrooms. I guess I should learn my lesson of double checking to make sure all bathroom doors are closed. Maybe he is just messing with my head and he can open doors. Just not when I'm around.

Picture Post

So I just downloaded our resent pictures to the computer & I thought I would share...

Mom should not where wool sweaters in the winter. It just does nothing good for the hair.

Here is Josh when he was sick & running a fever. We spent most of the day watching Baby Einstein & eating oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. He is such a cutie.

I forgot that I took pictures of this. This is the incident of me trying to get him ready for bed & he ran off to daddy & Josh tried taking off his own diaper...see here.

So I was trying to get a picture of me & Josh. Josh wasn't in the picture taking mood.

I thought I would showcase my home at Christmas time.

FHE-Getting Organized

We had a traditional & short FHE this week. Usually our FHEs are not really planned out, we just sort of count what we do together as FHE, but not this week. We had an opening prayer and then we watched one clip of the childrens Book of Mormon stories DVD that we got from Christmas for the lesson. It was about a minute and half long. We learned Lehi was a prophet and that is about all Josh would sit through. For activity, we colored and practiced not eating the crayons. We also finished our FHE board (almost...it was sad because I thought I had the things to hang it up on the wall, but I guess we don't so it is not on the wall yet, but will be tommorrow. I think it looks fabulous if I do say so myself and yes we will be having 3 more children so that our FHE board will be complete. Our FHE ended with the song I love mommy, she loves me...I don't know what the title of it is, but Josh like to hum that one.

Procrastination & Family Update

So the boy is asleep and I have a lot of work that I have to get done before Tuesday & I am not motivated to do anything. I just want to curl up in my bed and watch a good chick flick. Instead I'm surfing the net and updating my blog. I'm jealous of everyone elses blogs & I want mine to look cute too. I guess by being on the computer, I'm close to my work. I will be so glad when Jan 31st hits. Q4 reports will be done & W2s will be out the door and I can almost return to work 30 hours a month (almost because I will still have annual reports due by end of Feb). Then I can relax and focus on my dirty house.

Other family news...FHE on Monday will consist of going to a townhall meeting and protesting a rezoning of the land 2 or 3 house plots of land away from us. Prieb who owns the land wants to rezone it from single family homes to apartments. We were leagally suppose to be notified, but we weren't. Our neighbor went door to door letting our neighborhood all know. She is one of the only ones that got contacted (it's right next door to her). So we have all banded together and since there is not very many of us we also are letting the near by neighborhoods know. I hope we win. Only time will tell. That is going to suck big time if it passes.

Jason also just got told that the big project he was working on at B&V is being shut down so he could loose his job or get relocated to another section in B&V (out of nuclear division to another division). Hopefully the later. They do see value in Jason (he has received a couple of raises that aren't the normal inflation one & in his last review he recieved the highest rating you can get & not very many people get that one) so I'm quite confident they will keep him.

New Year 2009

A review of 2008...I'm in the middle of posting pictures on facebook so if you are interested you can look at all the cute pictures of Josh from 08. Big things in our lives that happened in 08 Readers Digest version. PS no one is getting a Christmas Card update of our lives...just didn't happen this year.

• Moved into our first house - it's been fun...only complaint is the roof.
• Went on a Family vacation to SD...Jason biked, we enjoyed the scenery, went to bear country, watched movies, shopped, saw Mt Rushmore
• Josh got teeth, learned to crawl, learned to walk, learned some sign language, and says a few words, loves Elvis & Beethoven and likes to help mom with the laundry.
• Jason got an out of the blue raise at work so they must like him, he teaches seminary, he is still working on his thesis...He has the conclusion & the appendix left. He enjoys going to the gym and doing a spinning class with some of his friends at work.
• Jen quit her job at Neosystems, had the summer as a full time homemaker, accepted a job at EMR working from home. At church I am the primary secretary. I'm at the moment obsessed with oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, solitare on my new IPod and I really like rubber stamps.

So after reviewing my goals form last year and seeing what I did and did not accomplish...here are my goals for 2009

• Personal: Read 6 books a year, scrapbook one page a month, read scriptures daily, try 1 new recipe a month, keep house clean, send out a Christmas Letter
• Family: Have FHE weekly, read scriptures as a family, make sure Jason & I have date night, Temple trip monthly, go on a family vacation even if it isn't far, throw a party for Jason once he finishes his thesis (he will finish it this year)
• Work: Try to get along with the whole accounting department, try not to be so stressed about work-get through Feb 29th (W2 will be done), try to keep house clean - maybe come up with a schedule.