CHRISTENSEN

So it's final! Our flights are booked, babysitters (aka, my Mom and Dad) set up to watch the kids, and the cruise is paid for!! We're going to the Bahamas for anniversary #5!! We head off to Miami on January 29. Board ship on the 30th---and hopefully have a super fun anniversary on the 31st!! We are both super excited as this is going to be the honeymoon that we never really got. I don't know how I'm going to act with just Lane around and no kids (does anyone ever have a hard time not talking about your kids?). And I wonder how Lane will act with having me sit next to him on the plane. My prediction, he'll be rolling his eyes at me the whole time. I love to travel, and now that he's been doing it regularly for so long he hates it. So yeah, I definitely see rolling eyes in my direction while I'll be jumping out of my seat with excitement. I have a little bit of hope that since we're flying first class and that it is for fun (not work) that he'll enjoy the flight too. I'm almost as excited to fly in first as I am to go on the cruise. From what Lane has told me it is quite the experience. So now I'm thinking I should REALLY go tanning, and kick up my workout. I only have 8 weeks till we leave!

A friend e-mailed this to me and I thought it important. I guess it's time that we all get really vocal and stand up for what we believe.

If you are against the FOCA (Freedom of Choice Act) that Barack Obama has promised to immediately sign into action, please go to this link and sign the petition. This act, initiated in 2004, would overturn any state legislation to limit abortion and would, in fact, legalize abortion through the 9th month of gestation. This would re-institute partial birth abortions in states where it is now illegal.
Since fewer and fewer doctors are willing to do abortions, FOCA would allow non-doctors to perform abortions. Safe?
Further, necessity for parental notification would be null and void.
And no institution, regardless of their beliefs would be allowed to turn away someone who wanted an abortion. That means, for instance, that Catholic hospitals would be required to allow abortions to occur on their premises. Catholic Bishops will have to decide whether to discontinue operation of their facilities or choose to break the law. Catholic hospitals comprise a good chunk of our current health care system. What kind of freedom of choice is that?http://www.fightfoca.com

So I thought I'd finally sit down and write something for this blog, as it has been a LONG while since I've posted. I've definately got all sorts of things to post, like the fun things we did on my birthday, and spending a week in Rexburg while Lane was out of town, all the billion craft things I've been doing, and of course Halloween. But, that's about all your gonna get. We had fun. I'm kind of in this "not in the mood to post" right now. And I've been super horrible at commenting on all of your blogs. SORRY! Does anyone else ever feel like this? Ah! Well, thanks everyone for all of your very very nice comments on my red wall, and yes, Lane really likes it. And, hopefully soon I'll be chatting your eyes off with all the post I can think of!

Due to technical difficulties I was unable to post some fun things that went on this past weekend. First of all, Sunday night, Lane comes in the house carrying a plastic box. My first thought, with how he was looking in the box, was that it was a huge spider (I hate nothing more than spiders). I immediately start questioning him, what's in there!!!! Then as he tilts the box, I can see something dark move and try to run, OK, then it's a mouse?! A few more tilts of the box and I see he has caught.....

A salamander! No, I'm not a fan of lizards, but I wanted to take it's picture for the blog. So I was a bit surprised to think he looked cute when Lane lifted the rag off of him. Like he'd been sleeping and was all curled up, not too scary looking. I then felt bad that Lane had a dirty garage rag as his blanket and went and got him a clean rag. After Lane figured out what kind of lizard he was he let him go. I'm waiting for this guy to show up again. Hopefully he's not dead, as it has been on the cold side. And I hope he wasn't someone's pet. I do wish Lane would have kept him through the night so we could have shown the kids.

All right, so the next fun thing, we finally bought Aige a bicycle. (I think this took so long cuzz Lane was really wanting to buy him a motorbike- or as Aige calls them, motorcyke) Obviously, Aige has been loving this and always wanting to go "biking". So here are a few pics from his first ride.

I've never grown grapes before, so this entire summer I have been watching ours closely, interested at the whole process. And this morning we (and I mean mostly me, with a little of un-help from the kids) finally went out and picked them!! Although, in this picture they they kind of look like big bowls popcorn. I was amazed at how many grapes we got off of our 1 vine. Aige wanted to wink at the camera, I think it is a new trick. He did help me pull some of the grapes off the stems, and then just wanted to play in the water.
He was much more helpful when it came time to mash them.
My mom suggested trying to suspend the grapes (which are in a cheesecloth). I don't have a juicer so we did this the real old fashioned way. I thought I was pretty clever to use the hanger.

I'm excited to taste the juice. I'm planning on turning it into jelly. And don't notice my ugly kitchen, we're planning on remodeling it next spring! And now, we're off to music class!!

Anyone who has spent any time with me has probably heard me say something about how much I dislike our furniture. I've been bugging Lane about it regularly since we were given our first couch over 4 years ago. Saturday we went to RC Willey for one of their tent sales and found a beautiful sofa/love seat set for a great price! It is light sage but I think in the picture it looks a little minty.

I'm such a procrastinator. We've been in our house for a couple months, and because it is a new place (to us at least), I've kind of wanted to have all new decorations and stuff-anyone else ever do this? Kind of unrealistic in a way, but I don't want to look at the same stuff on the walls anymore. Well, so then I have let myself think that I didn't want to do much in case we got some new furniture and then everything would be in the wrong color or place, and so on. So this is awesome cuzz now I can finally get my decorative side going! Hopefully, we'll get our grass in the backyard planted in the next couple of days so we can focus on all the indoor projects to finish, like the ugly door next to love seat, it'll get painted, and I also want to paint the entertainment center black. We've got so many projects to do in/on/around the house, and no where near enough time to get them all done, but at least I've gotten rid of the ugly furniture!!

One of Evelyn's favorite toys is the telephone. The ones that actually work, not the toy ones. There have been a few instances where she has actually called someone (I think from going through the caller i.d. or a speed dial number). I'm not always the quickest to jump up and take it from her, but I think I now will be a bit more careful as a few minutes ago we had a cop knock on our door (how many things can go through your head in a matter of seconds??)- actually I was totally confused when he asked if we had dialed 911. No, I hadn't, but then, I had just taken the phone from Evelyn just a couple of minutes before Mr. Policeman came to our unknown rescue. So now I feel a bit stupid, OK, a lot stupid, and also relieved because when Lane is out of town there are some nights when I can be pretty imaginative. I always sleep with the phone practically in my hands and I guess it is good to know that in case of some crazy incident where the only thing I might be able to do is dial 911, at least someone will come to make sure everything is all right. (And yes, I've actually wondered if they would come even when no one says anything). Well, so on with our day, but what are the chances that Evelyn would randomly be able to dial 911?

Lane did some work this weekend on a car for a guy that he works with. In return, he is letting us borrow his tiller and helped us start digging up our back yard. When we first moved in it was almost a jungle back there, so many weeds. But we've been mowing it and watering it. Well, Lane decided he wanted it more level. So we are now in the very beginning stages of landscaping the back yard. We literally had the tiller going all day (to give you an idea of the size of this project, since pictures don't seem to do any justice. ) While Lane was using the tiller, the rest of us were raking up the weeds/grass into piles, then moving them to a big pile to burn. We didn't finish. Had to quit when it was too dark to see anything. Unfortunately, Lane left for California on Monday and won't get back till late Friday. So Saturday we get to finish this project. Hopefully, we'll get the sandbox set (we're going for a real sandbox, not the fisher price, or cheep swimming pool from Wal-mart size filled with sand), plus the gardens (yes, two-My parents made a quick visit Sunday to Monday, and my mom gave us the great idea to have two, the big one for stuff like corn that takes some time to grow, and then another one, that's closer to the patio-and door- for stuff that we'd use throughout the summer, like lettuce, and herbs, and we'll do a salsa garden!!). We also want to have a set place for the swing set, big toy, play thing, that we'll be getting hopefully soon. Seems like a ton of stuff, but the main goal for this weekend is getting the grass planted. So here is a before picture, some of the during and near end of the day. Plus, a cute one of Evelyn. Thanks McKay, Katie, Ryan and Tara, for coming over to help us!!

From a distance, you'd never know that most of the green is actually weeds...

Even Aige was helping, of course, now the whole back yard is a sand box!

So about once a month I go to what we call craft group. I started doing this over a year ago with a friend in our stake who has a vinyl business. Each month she's got different craft projects that we can come and make ourselves. It has been one of the highlights of the month. I get to leave the kids for the evening, hang out with other fun moms (like Katie and Tara! - and meet other fun moms), and come home with some beautiful home decorations! And we save tonz since we are making them ourselves instead of paying some huge price at a craft show. Ah, where would we be without Alison, right? (Really, she is one of the coolest people I know!) Ok, so last night we made these really cute turkeys and I can't help but want to show you all how cute he is....


I think we were all getting a little giddy as we started dressing him. And now I'm so excited for the upcoming seasons of Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas!!!

So the past couple days we've been at a company retreat at Tamarack Resort (about 20 minutes from McCall, a couple hours or so from where we live). We went up Friday night and came home early this morning. But I'm not going to bore you all with the details. Because the really fun thing was the raffle drawing they did. I won an alarm clock/stereo station for my ipod (I actually have been thinking of buying another one lately). Then they did another drawing for some really "big" items, like they gave away 3 night vision goggles (I think these cost them at least $4000 a piece!). So anyways, I'm sure buy now you are all guessing that Lane's name was drawn for the grand prize. I had to restrain the tears because it is 2 First Class Business Elite tickets for anywhere in North America (not just U.S. - Canada, Mexico, Virgin Islands, San Juan, Alaska,...not Hawaii-but I don't care about Hawaii, I've been there and so has Lane) Who wouldn't be crying right? Poor Evelyn was sitting on my lap when they read Lane's name and I threw her right into the air - not letting go, of course- probably suprised the heck out of her. Have any of you ever flown first class? So if you guys could go anywhere in North America, where would you go? I kind of want to leave the country. Guess we can save Lane's sky miles for another fun trip.

Evelyn is blowing kisses. It took her a few days to warm up to everybody.

Only one thing they were watching...Dads skiing...

And of course, Lane skiing. I love watching him, but he always forgets which foot to put forward. On his second run he switched feet and Aige told him to put the right foot forward and lean back. He was right!

I finally uploaded some pictures off my camera and had forgotton about these few. Just before taking off to Montana for the 4th of July we went through a car wash. This is actualy the 2nd time the kids got to experience an automatic car wash. After their reactions the first time through one I was prepared with the camera for this. (Honestly, I really wish I'd had the camera for the first car wash, it was hilarious. Got me thinking...why drive to Lagoon and pay a lot of money to get in when a good colorful car wash only costs $10)


















Reactions weren't as extreme for this second ride, but they both were amazed and I think a little freaked out (in a good fun way) by all that was happening to the car. I think Evelyn even pulled her arms close to her body once to keep them "safe" from the giant spinning brush


















All in all, it was a great ride!

Maybe it's the fact that I just finished the 3rd book a few hours ago (which I purchased last night) plus that I only started this series in the last week, and I am a total sucker for a love story. Maybe it's because Lane's been gone so much, but I now find myself obsessing over a vampire. A little late, but I've finally jumped on the bandwagon for Twilight (at least I only have to wait 23 days, 3 hours, and 22 minutes for the last book). So, for anyone who hasn't read this series, (as if there were) it's a total must read. And for the rest of you, did anyone else besides my BF growing up go all googoo for Edward? Yeah, I'm obsessing.
Watch out, Lane, I do get a little crazy when you leave. :)

But that's about it. First off, sorry for not posting. I really hate moving. But before any more time goes by I really need to shout out thanks to everyone that helped us. Especially Mckay. Honestly, if he wasn't here helping Lane, I think Lane might have died by internal combustion. He was there to help scrape off nasty asbestos ceiling and retexture ceiling and pull out carpet and paint, paint, paint. Plus, then came and helped us move in, all in 5 days!! Thanks, Katie, for letting us take him from you and for your help too!
I am so glad for visiting teachers!! They were soooo much help with our kids and even thought to bring Lane and I something to eat while we were slaving away.
Most of all, thank you Lane, for ALL that you are doing to make this tiny little house our home. You have done an amazing job and it really does look sooo much better!
Since we moved in (less than a month ago) Lane has been out of town. Texas the first week, Arizona the second, then we all got to go to Montana last week (more on that later), he's in California now, and Alaska next week. I don't know how he does it, and come home still breathing. Anyways, so thank you, everyone, for helping us out!!

Wow! What a week this has been! In one sentence, I feel like we just went through the refiner's fire with our lender and loan. I almost think that if we hadn't been in a contract with the house we may have given up the whole thing. Monday we were faced with some tough decisions (an understatement, really) and then Tuesday felt like I'd lived through a disaster (another understatement). I spent all day on the phone, getting 2 or 3 calls coming in during other calls, and sending and receiving faxes with like 70 pages. Literally, all day. Non-stop. We ended up changing our lender (nice, 2 days before closing), but I really have to say that the people at First Horizon, who we ended up going through, were awesome!!! They had all our information, documents, everything, even the underwriting done in less than two days (someday, you will all really grasp on to what this means). Plus, they ended up saving us a huge chunk of money, and lowering our monthly payments a ton!! I really couldn't praise them enough. Then today......we closed on the house!! And we've got the keys! So it's now crunch time as we (and I really mean, mostly Lane) are scraping off the old popcorn style ceiling, re-texturing the ceiling, pulling out the old carpet, and painting the entire house, all by Tuesday so some guy can come in and lay the new carpet.
Lane and I have had so many little (and big) road blocks as we gone through this process of buying a house. But it is so obvious to me that those obstacles were placed there so that we'd end up with this house and that the financing would be right. The whole time I've thought, "the Lord has guided us in major changes in the past, why would this one be any different"? If I could only list all the things that changed in the last week to our benifit. So, we are officially home owners!! And, I finally have been feeling the excitement of it!

So this past weekend we went back to Rexburg (seems like we have been going every other weekend). But, we had to because if we didn't, I'd be the only one of my siblings not home. That's right, all 7 of us plus 4 spouses, 21 grandkids, and of course, Mom and Dad. There were only two not there, my oldest nephew because he's in the army, and my sister-in-law because she's on bed rest, pregnant with twins due in just a few weeks. It's always so fun to get together with all my brothers and sisters. The last time was when Lane and I got married over 4 years ago. I'm the second to the youngest and there is 6 years between the older 5 and me and Debra. I wish we could have stayed the rest of the week with everyone else, but, so goes life. It was still a fun weekend.

Aige with my brother's kids (who live in Mississippi), Derek and Sara.

Evelyn and my dad. I love my dad, he has such a tender heart. I can only imagine the emotion he, and my mom, were feeling to have us all together, even for only a few hours.

...With Aunt Debi ...isn't she gorgeous?!!!

Evelyn and Sara, who is only 9 months older, and Jenny, my sister-in-law.

Aige and Dillan, who lives in Utah and is 10 months younger than Aige. I have a brother in Mississippi, another in Utah and they are the only ones with kids within a year of Aige and Evelyn. So it was a new experience for them to be at Grandma's house with kids around the same age. Oh, and yes, the trampoline is in the ground. When my parents first did this a few years ago I wasn't too fond of the idea. But now that I have little kids I think its great! I don't worry about them being on the tramp and falling off!! We did get pictures of everyone together, I'll have to post that later when I get it. It's weekends like these that bring the saying "Families Are Forever" to life!

So Wednesday night I got to take some of the girls in our laurels iceskating for mutual (oh, I'm the secretary in our young womens). Yay, fun, right? Until I got pulled over on our way back for going 52 on a 40 mph road. I had just gotten onto this road from the freeway, so naturally, I didn't even notice that I was speeding. nice. of all times. I can hear it now, "Hey Mom and Dad, guess what happened on our way back from mutual?" Me - "Yes, Bishop, I do try to be a careful and attentive driver, especially while I am driving our youth around"! Now I get to pay a $75 ticket the day before we close on the house. Too bad I didn't have the kids with me, maybe I'd gotten off the hook. The cop probably thought we were all a bunch of cRaZy college girls. Who knows, but he did ask me why I wasn't wearing my seat belt, right after he asked me for my registration and watched me take it off so I could reach over to the jockey box. At least Lane couldn't give me too much grief since he got a $140 speeding ticket a couple months ago...on the same road.

I'm sure you've all wondered what we decided to do about the whole house issue...well, we decided to put an offer on the small house with the big yard. They counter offered and we let it expire because we went to look at a different house. Last weekend we really didn't know what we were going to do, but went back to the big yard house. It turned out that the owners had felt really bad to have lost us (their realtor called ours over the weekend to see if they could re-counter, and also told him that they should have accepted our offer). This was great for us, because our second offer was less than the first and they accepted it!! (Realtor thinks they didn't want to chance losing us again - yeah for a buyer's market!!) We close on June 5!! What's really great is that this house is maybe 2-3 miles from where we live now, instead of 15-20 miles!! And it has a peach tree and an apricot tree and a grape vine! Aige wants to grow pumpkins in the garden. I get more and more excited when I think about all the fun things to do in a backyard!!

Just wanted to wish you all a wonderful Mother's Day!! I think you're all awesome and you are not only great moms but great friends, too!! LOVE YOU GUYS!

It seems like as Lane and I have been looking at houses we have two options. We could buy a new house with what looks and feels like 10 feet of a backyard (OK, probably closer to 20 feet), or we could buy a smaller, older, but still OK house with a MASSIVE backyard. Call me crazy, but I keep leaning toward getting a bigger backyard. I almsost don't care what the house looks like anymore. I really want to have a garden and enough room for a swing set and slide, and then also a swimming pool that we got (for free!) last fall - one that is like 10x4 foot (partly why the yard has to be bigger than 10 feet). What do you guys think? Big yard? Or new house? Oh, and keep in mind that Aige LOVES to be outside, rain, snow, sunshine, he'd live outside if we let him.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about what I was doing 5 years ago. Maybe it's the "we just had our 4th anniversary... next year will be 5... wow, that means Lane and I have now known each other for 5 years....". So I have been reflecting on what was going on and am truly amazed at the way my life made such a huge turn around. So all this thinking got me wondering about all of you and your spouses and I wanna know: Where are you each from, when/how'd you meet, and what'd you do on your first date? What's your story? Here's ours:
Lane-Fairfield, Montana
me, Liz- Rexburg, Idaho
Lane had come to Rexburg with friends, not really doing the school thing but was working at good old R and S Automotive with my brother-in-law, Brian. Of course I'd been in the shop a couple of times so Lane knew who I was and kept pestering Brian to give him my number. Brian wouldn't because I was engaged and, well...he didn't want to get in the middle of that. (Yes, engaged, and had been with this guy since I was a junior in high school until 5 years ago last week- I'd found out he'd been not as true as he should have) So, a few weeks I learned through the family grape vine (seeing as everyone knew him but me) that this guy named Lane, thought I was hot (me thinking, "who is Lane? Oh, that guy that works with Brian!"). I finally decided that it was OK for him to call me (btw, he happened to be in MT that weekend at Chad and Misti's wedding). But he didn't get my number from Brian, he got it through his roommate, Trent, who worked at Wendy's with my little sister Debra - how they made this connection??? I guess I should ask. May 20, 2003 he calls and this is like the first time we really speak to each other. He comes to get me in his grand prix with his crazy roommate Aaron and his lady, Lindsey. We went and played pool in I.F. ate at Winger's, and barely missed getting into a movie. So instead we went to the new at the time Super Wal-mart and pushed each other in the carts and I boxed him with some Hulk hands (they even made noise). I remember thinking after he dropped me off, that if I keep dating this guy, I'm going to marry him. I've had fun thinking about some of the funny things that happened right as we started dating like by best friend, Collette, going into the shop, without me-kind of, and meeting Lane and giving her "approval". Or, when I brought my car in to have it serviced and I had to show him where one of the dip sticks was (good thing my dad had just shown me not too long before that, I felt pretty smart. In his defense, it was in an unusual place and he is a very good mechanic). But most of all, 5 years ago my world came crashing down around me and then came Lane. He picked me up, mended my heart, and taught me what real love feels like. I LOVE YOU, LANE!!

So only a few of you knew this, but Saturday Lane and I put an offer on a house out in Kuna (not to far from where we live now). The past couple days we've been going through the counter offer game with not just the sellers but some other buyers. And we didn't get the house. We are so totally bummed about it. But I think this must be one of those times like getting bucked off the horse, we've got to get back on. Last night I was feeling like there wouldn't be any other house that I'd like as much AND could still afford. So today I made my new list of houses to go see and hopefully we'll find that one that is suppose to be ours.

So Lane is back to traveling again. But...a lot more than he used to. He'll be gone every week for a while - only home on the weekends. Hopefully this won't last too long. Right now he's in Texas and next week he'll be in Arizona (I think). I really can't remember what I've said about what he does, so for those of you who don't know. He installs night vision equipment on helicopters, so he goes all over the country. But the last 6 months or so he hasn't been doing any installs because the company he works for is "working out" issues with the FAA over paperwork. In case (though unlikely) that someone from the FAA would read this, I will refrain from giving my opinion about the FAA. The company is getting back to work but has 6 months worth of customers waiting to get this equipment on their aircraft. Even though this has been a HUGE deal for this company, I'm impressed with how they have come through it. I don't know how many small businesses could go for this long without having their main source of income and still keep their employees and their company afloat.


But on to funner things...Evelyn started walking today!! She's taken at least 6-8 steps all by herself!! She's getting so excited that she's doing it. It's funny how different kids are. Aige was walking at 9 1/2 months. Evelyn has been doing it all a little slower, and that is sooooo OK with me. But I'm excited that she'll be walking just in time for warm weather and the parks and she'll be able to run after Aige. I think he'll like it just as much. They are such good little friends, but Oh they sure can drive me crazy some days. Evelyn is a little teaser and since Aige is bigger than her he will hold her foot or leg or somehow prevent her from moving where she wants. So I hear them whining and complaining too much for my ears. I do absolutely love to see and hear them laughing and playing together. A child's laughter is something in itself. But to hear it mixed with the laughter of their sibling is priceless. I'm so glad for those two little kids to keep me going when Lane is gone.

The other night Aige and I were talking about his friends. I was telling him how he has lots of friends and named a few that he plays with regularly who all like him. After a short pause he says to me, "All the girls like me"!

My sweet little Evelyn turned 1 year old yesterday!! Her first year has gone by so quickly. I wish all of you could spend time with her because she is so fun to be with. I can honestly say that I've loved every minute of her babyness (even the beginning being up every few hours) and now as she is changing into a cute little toddler. She has Lane's easy going nature and just enough of my sassyness. We just love this little girl. I'll post pictures later since I'm on the wrong computer for pictures. But for now, a walk down my memory lane, sparing some detail. But you all should know that Lane was in New York when Evelyn was born. I told him that being on a trip the week before I was due was probably a bad idea. But, oh well, sometimes I think it's probably a good thing he didn't see how hard this was for me (I think it would have made him feel pretty rotten). But thankfully my mom came 8 hours before Evelyn was born and thankfully I had a great visiting teaching companion who came at 3:30 in the am to stay with Aige and then take care of him that day. And thankfully I made it to the hospital. No joke. It was barely after 4 when we got to the hospital and Evelyn was born at 4:21. To clarify, 20 minutes later. So, thankfully we made it to the hospital. And I guess I'm thankful that I was only in labor for maybe an hour an a half. And that she wasn't any bigger (7 lbs) And that there just happened to be a midwife sitting at the nurse's station who came in and delivered Evelyn. What I was most thankful for? That it didn't last a second longer than it did. I couldn't have any meds because we were too close to delivery. So I felt EVERYTHING. And I never want to feel it again. I didn't handle it too well. But, in reality, I barely woke up and bam, had a baby. Who's brain can handle that? Oh, and to answer your question, didn't I have contractions? Not in the sense of a birthing class lesson. Breath....contraction....breath. Nope. I started having constant pain in my back, it felt nothing like it did with Aige. It was the last stage of labor, it was hard. Oh, I am thankful that Lane's boss flew to New York to take his place so Lane could get back to us as soon as he could. I guess I should change my answer. What am I most thankful for? That my sweet little girl came healthy. She is beautiful and wonderful and I love her.

Yeah, that's right. Lane is on his way to Hawaii! He comes back on Friday. So I am here in good ol' Rexburg, hanging out with the family. What a drive! 5 hours ALL BY MYSELF and the two kids! By Blackfoot Aige was begging to get out of the car. I'm not feeling too bad about not getting to go to Hawaii. That's a long flight for the kids, they'd have to come, plus, Lane is working, not really vacationing, and, I've been there. So I really hope Lane gets a chance to go see some things. So build up those sky miles, Lane, cuzz I'm looking forward to anniversary #5!

NOT PREGNANT! Like you all really want to know my cycle. But, seeing as I was over a week lATe, I've been somewhat fREEKing out. I'm normally like clockwork. The only times I've been "late" resulted in Aige and Evelyn 9 months later. So, until this morning I honestly thought I was pregnant. And soon to go buy the test. I could go on and on about why right now is the worst possible time to get pregnant, beyond the fact that Evelyn is only 11 months old. But, needless to say, last night I had a migraine and was in tears about the whole issue. (i'm a horrilbe pregnant lady). I was praying (more like begging) to not be pregnant. CrAzy, but it really is a blessing to not be pregnant. At least my body waited until Lane would be leaving again. He flies to Arizona early tomorrow morning and then back to Tennessee on Wednesday. He doesn't come home until Saturday. Since not all of you know what he does...he installs night vision equipment on helicopters. So he gets to go aLL over the country to wherever the helicopter is. (I've got big plans for those sky miles he's building up, like 5 year anniversary next January- a big reason why now is not the time to get pregnant). I feel for him, though. He's pretty sick right now and if he didn't have a trip this week he probably wouldn't have gone in to work today. He really is a good guy, and extra hard worker. So, have any of you had any "false aLarms"?

I have to say, Aige is the bestest little boy ever! usually. But especially this morning. I go into his room to play geotrax with him and he says, "Mom, you help clean my room?" So we start picking up the toys and putting them away and he starts singing "clean up, clean up, everybody do their share" over and over until his room is clean. Usually, I end up cleaning his room, but this time, he was really doing it! Way to go Aige!

So I finally decided that we really needed to potty train aige. I don't like things that are too hard, call me lazy, whatever, but every time that we'd start it was just such a battle and I was always wondering if he was really ready (or more, was I ready?). So yesterday I told him that there weren't any more diapers for him. The ones we have are only for babies like Evelyn. So it was a pretty typical day, he did good, had a couple of accidents - actually, I really think he was trying his hardest to not go to the bathroom and then not being able to hold it would pee a little to relieve the pressure and then back to holding it. So today, a little of the same, but then as I am putting Evelyn down for a nap I here him say, "Mommy, there's poo in the little potty". Right, whatever, Aige. This kid thinks any brown crumb is poop. So I go into the bathroom and sure enough, there's poop!!! Yeah! I was in shock. Then, a few minutes later, without my prompting, he goes in and pees in the potty, too! I hope we're on a roll. Ah, the life of being a mom!

So yesterday I had a comment on the last post from an unknown source. Really wish I would have written down the name and comment before I deleted it so I could have reported it, but, instead, being somewhat stupid, I clicked on the name and then their blog. I was then told that I had 7 viruses on my computer and I needed to take action immediately with this antivirus bla bla and it wanted me to download it. So naturally, I started freaking out. To cut this short, I didn't think this site was legitimate and didn't download anything and my computer is OK. But, thought you all should be aware that this kind of thing is out there. I've read on some other blogs that some of the links these have go to porn sites and all that kind of junk. I thought I'd be fine in just going to the blog, but, duh, soooooo stupid! Guess I need to up the security on who can leave comments.

I was going to post this a while ago, but then we were sick. This was kind of an interesting day. We had 3 fire trucks in our parking lot. I guess a sprinkler pipe had frozen and broke in one of the units in the building next to us. Aige loves fire trucks so we had to go outside to see them up close.

) What I was doing 10 years ago: I was a freshman in highschool (only there's too many students so the freshman were at the jr. high) It was the last year I could be and was on the school gymnastics team, and I played volleyball. I was also with two dance teams. Now that I think of it, I can't remember how I did all these at the same time.
2) 5 things on my To Do list today: 1-Play volleyball at the church 2-Finish laundry (almost done!) 3-finish invites for new beginnings 4-Get Aige a new car seat so Evelyn can move into his. 5-Go do something fun with Lane, McKay, and Katie without the kids!! (which, btw, Aige calls McKay, McKatie)
3)I enjoy: Having a clean house, then I have peace of mind when doing everything else. I also enjoy having Lane home, both kids napping, me napping, baking, doing something fun with friends, laughing.
4) If I were suddenly made a billionaire: I'd pay off all our debt, buy a house, new vehicles, Lane a motorbike (he's been trying to find one lately), a boat, a shorefront house In Swan Lake, MT, invest most of it, and help our families where they may need it, and my list goes on and on.
5) 5 Jobs I've had: 1-Subway Sandwich artist 2-Super 8 housekeeping and front desk 3-Melalueca Product Specialist 4-Manager of a cell phone kiosk in the mall 5-Marketing specialist for Summit Real Estate. I'm glad they come up with really neat sounding names for podunk jobs.
6) 6 things most people don't know about me: 1- My sophmore year of high school we had a foreign exchange student from Germany live with us. After I graduated high school I took a tour of France, England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland with my parents, two aunts and cousins, and then my parents took me to Germany and left me there for 3 weeks with Ioana (sounds like yo-wanna)! 2-I was the head cheerleader my sophmore year and also made the all star team 3-I started the jr. high dance team in Rexburg, 4-I went to Hawaii with my dance group in 8th grade 5-I like all the clothes to be facing the same direction in the closet, with all the hangers being the same color- white, and have organized the clothes by likeness. 6-I play the piano, but would like to finish learning the violin and also learn how to play the guitar, and a harp.
I tag: Katie, Tara, Renae

Wow, what a couple of weeks! We've been sick here at our house. Aige has been the most sick he's ever been. (Which is really saying something, cuzz this kid has almost never even had a cold) Yesterday was the first day after 5 that Aige didn't have a fever. As soon as medicine would wear off it'd get up to 104! So needless to say, I've been lying around on the couch with Aige for the last week. I've almost forgotten how to do my hair or where my makeup bag is. Thankfully, Evelyn has only had the cough and boogers - knock on wood. I hope we're really on the mend now, we've gotta be ready for some Valentine's Day fun tomorrow!

A friend sent this to me. It is worth the few minutes to watch. But be prepared with some tissues.
http://photo.byu.edu/video.php?cat1=Slide%20Shows&cat2=General&cat3=2008&cat4=Hinckley%20Tribute

My mom just called to give me the news that President Hinckley passed away a couple of hours ago. I really love President Hinckley. Who doesn't? He's been the president of the church for almost half of my life. I've been in his presence and felt the spirit that surrounded him, and it left such an impression on me that I know without a doubt that he was a true prophet, placed here by our Lord, and Savior, Jesus Christ. And, I'm gonna miss him.

So Lane is HOME!!! He and Aige are on the couch watching some TV, I'm down the hall on the computer when Lane calls for me. So I get up to see what he needs and he says, "I can't find the remote." This is obviously serious enough that it requires my assistance, from 30 feet away. This is probably a lot funnier to me than most of you, but there is now definately no doubt in my mind that life just wouldn't function the same if I wasn't here.

I have to say, that I just absolutely love my husband! Absence does make the heart grow fonder. I've realized that each time he's gone. But I've gotten used to having him home, so this week has been kind of a blow. Lane really is my prince. The last few months I've been kind of wondering why I was blessed with such a great guy. So many people that I know are going through divorces or suffering from the effects of a divorce that I have gained a new appreciation for the man that Lane is. I am so grateful that he came into my life and that he can look past my flaws and still love me like he does.
So this is what ya'll get when Lane leaves...a sentimental wife anxiously awaiting the return of her husband - who should now be on the airplane that is bringing him home! (even if it is 20 hours away).

What a weekend! So Lane left Friday night. A while later he knocks on our door. YEAH! His flight had been cancelled so he didn't leave until Saturday late morning. But then that afternoon I came down with a migraine so I wasn't able to really get us ready to leave for Rexburg. Sunday after church I was still feeling a bit ill but tried to get us ready really fast (agh! stressfull?!) I gave up. Decided that I'd try to leave first thing Monday morning. Oh, and that really bad storm that was coming wasn't so bad on Saturday and Sunday- hey, it cancelled Lane's flight to San Fransisco-but here everything was pretty good. Yeah right, until of course the second I step out the door to start the car this morning, it begins to snow. Just a little though. So I try to hurry and look up on the internet what is suppose to happen, call my mom to see what she knows and I watch the news. Within 30 minutes it was really snowing, something not seen very often here in Boise. I thought I'd tough it out and go anyway, freeway is usually better. I lasted about 10 miles before I decided that I needed to go with the undecided feeling about even going to Rexburg. Hence, here I sit in front of the computer, with what is now pretty decent weather.
Lane is safely in Australia. I keep figuring out what time it is over there. They are 18 hours ahead of us. So, right now it's 1:30 (Monday) in Idaho and 7:30 am - Tuesday - in Sydney. It does feel like he'll be coming home quicker though. He leaves on Friday, which is one day closer to him than me, (it'll be Thursday for me actually). Well I'll stop with all the confusing babble. My mom e-mailed me this link to a funny thing. Hope you all enjoy it!

http://www.frontiernet.net/~shelby304/specials/dontdowindows/nowindows.htm

Evelyn was so cute with the doll she got for Christmas. It's her first doll, oh, and the only one she has. She is such a girl! She immediately loved it! Between Christmas and New Years she started crawling! I thought I vaccumed a lot, but lately it feels like a few times a day- at least! She is so fun. Lane is always trying to get her to copy what he's doing. Like waving or head nodding. He's almost as fun to watch as her. Which, speaking of Lane, he is flying to Australia tomorrow night! He'll be back next Friday so I'm going to Rexburg while he's gone. Yeah, lucky me. But hey, over 20 hours of airports and flying just wouldn't be fun with a baby and 3 year old, not to mention oh so expensive. I am a bit sad, though. I've gotten used to him being home regularly for the past couple of months. If ya'll didn't know he usually is gone every 2-3 weeks for about 5 days at a time. This is the first time he is leaving the country, though. And I don't think he'll get to do a lot of "fun" stuff. Bon Voyage, Lane!