Wow. Has it been a month.

So Jeremy got home from Officer Training School but not before I got to go to Alabama and see him graduate. I have a couple pics here...

Also, many of you remember the crazy amount of snow Boise got dumped on in December. Here is some of the fun we had.

Getting ready for Christmas (the week before):

Here are Christmas morning pics:

And now we have traveled to our first station. Beale AFB in not-sunny Northern California. It is the "rainy season" and overcast everyday. It is making me depressed because we can't go play at the playground and we aren't in our house yet. Miserable.

So here is the story of how we chose our house. I talked to the housing office a wile back and they told me that they haven't "privatized" the housing yet (basically had a company come in and modernize and take over the management of military housing) so the houses are 1250 sq feet and have a 1 car garage if you are lucky. So yeah, I had no doubt that we would not be living on base. The housing allowance was a good amount and there were lots of nice houses online.

Well, we get here and start searching and found a couple we like but they would slip out from under us. One of them Jeremy really liked and we called an hour after viewing it and it was already rented to someone else. Same story for another one - just signed the night before. So these kept falling out from under us and I was getting really disheartened and frustrated. We were praying about it and praying to find somewhere that would be "fiscally responsible" and not have a huge commute. Jeremy asked me to call some of his co-workers wives and ask them what their opinion was. So I did. They said the housing on base sucks but there are some great benefits to living on base. If you can deal with the small house, the rest is good. So bam. Instantly felt a million times better and knew that this was where we are supposed to live. Unfortunately the housing is all wood and tile floors so the kids have been running through the empty house screaming and it echoes a ton so it drives us crazy. Our stuff comes on Monday so we will move in then and I hope that the noise will be lessened. The kids are going to share a room and the third bedroom will be a playroom, junk room, etc. So 3 or four years but it will save us a lot of money and enable us to come and see all of you more often. Crazy thing though. We move in the week another family moved out. The ward we are moving into has a lot of need and apparently is now wanting of a 2nd counselor in the bishopric and a new RS president. Yikes! Our records aren't here yet, but there is a lot of opportunities to serve.

Anyway.

We got here and met our one friend and went to New Years Eve at their house. Here are a couple pics for that. Jeremy and I met 10 years ago that night. Look where 10 years has taken us.

Since then we have been hanging out in temporary housing so last week we went to Sacramento. Across the street from the zoo there is a little park called Fairy Tale Land. We HAD to go there! Kaitlynn loved it. We went to Sherwood Forest. Drove Cinderella's coach. Slid down Owl's tree slide, Saw three blind mice, hugged Clifford, walked the Crooked Mile. It was cute. Here are the pictures. (And the milkshake afterwards.)

Here are our adventures in temporary housing, featuring the kids as well as the stray cat that sits at the back door.

We had an amazing Christmas and we are so grateful for the chance to say goodbye to you all. Thank you for being such good friends and family to us. We know where our home is and always will be.

So that is where we are at now. Monday we move into our new home. New adventures await us!

Hope your New Year and Christmas were great!

Funny story:
We went to see a house in Plumas Lake (30 minutes away). Here is the story:
The sister of the owner (Rachel) met us there (she lives next door. The brother lives 2 houses down.) So Rachel met us there and gave us the tour. It is a large house and way way way nice. The whole family looks very wealthy. So then she shows me everything and invited us to breakfast at her house because her sister (the owner of the house) was on her way. We ended up inside Rachel's house for a while visiting and everything was even more fancy over there (so I was nervous about the kids breaking something). I had kind of already made up my mind that it would save us a lot of money to live on base but I didn't want to be a jerk especially after meeting the whole family. So the sister (Rachel) is telling me that they will come down to $1300 for rent (they were asking $1500) but I am not sure the owner is 100% on board with that. Anyway, they were soooo nice to us and I could tell she really wanted to rent to us but I had my mind set on staying on base. So they are visiting with me and wanting us to stay and the kids are running around and getting rowdy so Jeremy goes outside to get the kids out of the lady's house and get away from it all. I finish talking with the sisters and finally make it outside. To my surprise Jeremy is talking to this old homeless looking lady. He glares at me and I walk over to him. The lady says she is their mother and wants our phone number in case we rent the house. (She is an old Asian woman) She tells us that we look like Angels. Jeremy just wants to get in the car and leave and I had to laugh to myself about the whole thing. I feel bad that we don't want to live out there even though she is willing to bend over backwards for us to rent from her.

So then after church on Sunday I have an urgent message on my cell. It is the toothless Asian mother who is very hard to understand. She is basically saying that she wanted us to move in and we will work out the payments later. "Call me back. Right away!"

Again, they were so nice and I felt like I was breaking up with a boyfriend when I called the lady back to say we weren't interested. Anyway, the old homeless looking Asian lady talking to Jeremy still cracks me up.

Car stories

This is the conversation that Kaitlynn and I had in the car on the way to California:

Kaitlynn: "Mommy."

Christina: "What?"

Kaitlynn: "I'm just saying your name."

a few minutes later...

Kaitlynn: "Mommy"

Christina: "Yeah?"

Kaitlynn: "I'm just saying your name."

After the fourth time...

Christina: Kaitlynn, Can you say a new name?

Kaitlynn: "Nope."

She must have been reading a book on how to drive mom crazy.

So we made it and this base is spread out for miles. It takes ten minutes to get from the entrance of the base to the housing area. This wouldn't be a big deal if there was something to see in between. But there is nothing. Hills, cows, and the speed limit that is strictly enforced. We are definitely not going to be living on base.

We were invited to a New Years party at a new friend's house. She had lots of yummy junk food treats and I ate them all. She invited a friend over so now I know 2 people. Yes, two. But we have only been here for a little over 24 hours so I am considering that successful.

Jeremy just informed that when he goes back to Alabama in March for 6 weeks of training it will take many days to drive there. Drive there? Really? Like, how many days will that take?

If we fly there we will have no car. Can't you rent a car for 6 weeks?

I am still weighing the options.

Happy New Year to you all. I hope Christmas was great too. The temperature here is close to 50 degrees each day. Christmas is officially over.

Our Seattle Trip

So we went to Seattle. This was Cody's first time on a plane. Surprisingly both kids were good. Turbulence doesn't phase them so I was content with the way it all went. Our plane was 25 minutes early into Seattle and a little early on the way back. (Yea Southwest!) I took a couple pictures on the plane but it is really hard to hold a 1-year old and take a self portrait at the same time, so here is what we got:

We had lots of yummy food to eat while we were there and it was made by the best chefs in the house, as you can see. Kaitlynn and Christian played "all da day" as we say around here, and had a great time. Cody played too but wasn't quite as involved as the other two. Kaitlynn and Christian are couch potatoes so they were the best of pals.

I made Callie and Katie go to Zumba - which is my new obsession and we had a great time. We had a conference call (led by task-master Joni) to coordinate Katie's Hawaii wedding. We also ate at an expensive fancy cheese restaurant. I felt very cultured.

It was a really great weekend. Thanks to all my family who helped make it happen.

Cody's almost 4 months!

So I have some pictures to post of our next step in eating in this household. Keep in mind we just trained Kaitlynn to eat like a normal human being...






















Apparently it's time for round two.

Keep in mind, the rice cereal tickles your nose which then causes you to sneeze this crap all over the place.
















This is the baby we are wanting to see. A nice clean one. Or even better. A sleeping one - even with the finger in his mouth. (not sure what that was all about).

And even best...the BSU fan all-geared-up-smiling-baby! Go broncos!















Also, I've been tagged. So I have some dirt to dish out on my family members:
Kaitlynn
1. She has had a scratchy throat lately and the other day I was tending to her and she says to me, "Mom, I have a frog in my face."
2. She still can't get out of her crib. (I actually like that.)
3. She loves to cook me dinner in her kitchen. (her toy one in her room)
4. She and her daddy are the best hide and seek players. The other day Jeremy hid her in a plastic 6 inch high bin - with the lid on it. She lies flat in there all bunched up funny and you can actually put the lid on it.
5. She still weighs less than 25 pounds.

Jer...I mean, my husband. (He refused to let me use his name)
1. He is a holiday nut. He loves to have the house decorated and ready to go for the holidays.
2. He took Kaitlynn on a daddy-daughter camping trip this fall. It was raining and they still went.
3. He loves motorcycles and Fox brand clothes. He only wears 3 colors of shirts - white, gray, and navy blue. (you should see our closet)
4. He is a great dad and husband. He'd do anything for his family - including everything in his power to please a crabby wife. (Who, me?)
5. He is the handiest man you could ever have. Something breaks and he is on top of fixing it. It is awesome. Or if you need something high up somewhere (tree, cupboard, etc) - he is equivalent to a monkey. (I believe part of that is because he is an adrenaline junkie and likes the riskiness.)
Oh, I am looking at her blog. I guess I am supposed to answer these questions:
1. How long have you been married? 8 years
2. How long did you date? 6 months January to July 2000
3. How old is he? Just turned 28
4. Who is taller? He is, definitely.
5. Who sings better? I do!
6. Who is smarter? Ummm, he is. Logic and street smarts. But I have social skillz. :)
7. Who pays the bills? I do.
8. Who does the laundry? I do.
9. Who sleeps on the right side? I do.
10. Who mows the lawn? He does! (Whew. This was starting to feel like a one-sided conversation.)
11. Who cooks dinner? I do.
12. Who is the first to admit that they are wrong? Probably me. Is he ever wrong?
13. Who kissed who first? I don't know. Does it matter? Shoot. He probably remembers.
14. Who wears the pants? I do and they are tight and uncomfortable!


Now I will tag Charise, Melinda, and Carrie. 5 things. 2 family members. 7 days.

My next blog should have some of our family pictures that we just had taken. Yea! (Please remember that I am still learning how to format this stupid thing, so bear with me. I anticipate that by my 15th post, I will have the pictures the right direction and centered. I was just happy to get the writing where I wanted it. Silly blog.)

Bad hair week

So I decided I needed a change of hair color. I was at the store and debated between two hair colors, thinking the whole time that I never wanted to dye my hair one color again. (I prefer highlighting) Monday I dyed it an orangish red. Tuesday decided I didn't like it. Thursday I called Melinda and got it re-dyed. Thursday night (when I got home) Kaitlynn says "Montana" (meaning Hannah Montana) and Jeremy said "Why did you change it?" which helped me decide I didn't like it. Friday I went back to Melinda's and had low lights put in and I like it better. Probably damaged it quite a bit, but I got the change I was looking for.
Enough about me, we took Kaitlynn and Cody to the Pumpkin Patch this evening. Kaitlynn found a pumpkin that has "a smile". (It had an indention that swoops like a smile.) So we had to get it. It weighed over 30 pounds.
The other event of the day - I have been holding out on getting gas and haven't gone anywhere all week because prices have been dropping and I wanted to buy it at less than $3 a gallon. So all week it has been 3.11 and today it dropped to 2.99. So I filled up at 11:15 and was excited to have gotten such a good deal. ONE HOUR later it was at 2.92 and at 3:30 it was at $2.82 and this evening $2.76. Seriously! I want my money back. All $3.75 of it.

Life in general

These pictures have nothing to do with my story.
So I decided to dye my hair "light natural blonde" because my roots were getting long and dark. Well, this, of course, was not the change I was looking for so now I am more like light-unnatural-orangish-red. Perfect for Halloween if you ask me. Luckily I have a good friend who has squeezed me into her schedule today to take care of this much needed change. On the other hand I am dealing with 3 sick people. Kaitlynn, who threw up all over her bed Tuesday night and Cody, who is in a constant state of ill-feeling and Jeremy, who is downing Aireborn like candy. Can I move out? I wondered. Instead, I put the two kids to bed and pulled out the chocolate peanut butter ice cream and ate it straight out of the container. There goes my whole week of exercising. :) Oh well, I feel better.

Oh Cody!

I am not sure why I get the fussy babies who can't tolerate food, but that is my lot in life - fighting food. Whether it be eating less for myself or trying to keep it down for my kids. It must have designated itself my eternal nemesis. So my little Cody has had a difficult time keeping food down. So much so, that we had a procedure done at the hospital where he drank Barium and they X-rayed his little tummy. To make a long story short, he basically has acid reflux, a little bit of colic, and possibly pyloric stenosis. (Which means that the spot where his tummy drains into the small intestine might be a little too tight. This requires surgery.) However, we are working on the acid reflux and trying to avoid surgery. He started meds for acid reflux yesterday and there have been a lot more minutes than normal of smiles. Yea! We will shoot for that everyday - just a few more minutes than the day before.
As for Kaitlynn, She and I went for a little drive yesterday to get Cody's medicine and as usual, she talked my ear off, but we were having fun. I had some issues at the pharmacy and had to make a few phone calls on my cell. Then I called Aunt Jenny for something, and then Grandma, and on the last phone call Kaitlynn says "Are you on 'da phone again, Mommy?"
"Yes, I am."
"You're a bad mommy."
I am not sure what the correlation is between being on the phone and being a bad mom. She can't possibly know that it is considered unsafe (while driving in the car), nonetheless, I had to laugh at this judgement. She must have just wanted more of my time. Either way, I found it pretty humorous. Gotta love these kids!

Sprinkle me with patience-My first blog

I had an experience today that I felt was significant enough to warrant starting a blog of my own. I happily agreed to watch my friends 2 year old little girl today while she had some things to do thinking that Kaitlynn and her friend would play and I would get some things done and all would be great. My first mistake is believing that 2 year-olds play together. They seem to just play near each other and want the toy the other one has. Either way, they want to see what the other is up to so they stick together. As I am trying to put Cody to bed, the girls keep running in my room and wanting to see what I am doing. I shoo them out of the room with promises of a snack as soon as Cody falls asleep. They finally go downstairs and I hear arguing and Kaitlynn comes to tell me that her friend pushed her and etc etc. But then there are happy noises. Even - (can it be?) - giggling and laughing! They are finally having a good time and they are downstairs where I asked them to be. So take a few extra minutes to tidy up after Cody goes down and then head downstairs. I turn the corner to enter the lower living room and discover the most obnoxious mess. The girls have gotten the sprinkles out of the pantry and are shaking them out over my new rug. These tiny nighmares are all over the floor and everywhere. Her friend had a puddle of them in her dress, the girls' hands are colored, and then I see the colored dots in their hair. You have got to be kidding me. I just vaccuumed, of course, but that issue pales in comparison to what it takes to fix this mess. I scoop as many as I can from Kaitlynn's friend's dress and get them in the kitchen to wash up, give them a snack and send them outside. Then I pull out the vacuum and begin a futile attempt to clean the mess up. Those stupid dots are too light for the vacuum to really suck up and once I turn off the vacuum, I hear them all shuffle down the hose. Not-to-mention the fact that when you run the beater bar over them it shoots each sprinkle like a sling shot, so there are more further away in the rug than just ground zero. So I roll the rug up and take it outside. I look around and decide that the best place to shake it out is the trampoline. But that doesn't get all of them out so I flip onto the grass and kick it and bang it, but there are still beads flying everywhere. So I take it back inside. Now I get to vacuum grass up off of it as well and I am certain there are colorful sprinkles still embedded in the strings of the rug, and under the couches. Of course, there is a colorful array of sprinkles all over the trampoline and the back patio, so even if I got most of it out, they will be back. All of this made me realize that what my friends who have 2 year-olds say is true. I seriously don't know how they keep up with these kids. I completely understand now what they mean when they say they clean up one mess after the other. Kaitlynn is no angel, but she lacks the curiosity that other kids seem to have, so I can humbly say to those poor mothers at their whits end: "I finally get it."