Ups and Downs of Everyday life

*I've been going to the park a few times a week with some other moms in the ward. Its nice to get out of the house.

*Ana's first words - "hi", "car", "cracker"

*Dave and I watched a lightning storm at 10:30 the other night. It was really cool!

*Its been kinda cool lately, not at all like last August. I hope summer isn't leaving already.

*Ana woke up this morning at 6. I rocked her back to sleep, but it didn't last long. I listened to her crying on and off for about 20 minutes before Dave brought her in to me at about 6:50. I wasn't ready to be mom yet.

*I've been working on a few sewing projects. My apron is almost done (I'll finish it today and post pictures) and I fixed the elastic in a skirt. I just wish I had a seperate place to do them instead of my kitchen table.

*Dave takes his Optometry Admissions Test this Friday in Boise. Wish him luck! I'm excited to visit my sister and friend who live there.

I'm a tropical storm!

I was excited to read "Erin makes landfall in Texas." My name is just one of those names that, although its pretty common, there aren't many things that use my name - songs, restaurants, nothing. So, finally I made it to "tropical storm."

picture post

She can't walk, but...

she can climb!

Shopping

Well, its been a few days since a post, mostly because I want to put pictures with them and our camera batteries are now in our wii remotes, so I can't take pictures, but I wanted to post something new.

Today I went to IF to help my sister put up some wallpaper border. While there I went to Kohl's because I heard they had cheap kid swimsuits. (The one Ana has been wearing was our neighbor's and they moved.) I left the store not only for a new swimsuit for this year, but one for next year, 2 outfits for winter, a dress for next spring, a dress for now and a cute Tshirt (all for Ana) for only 40 dollars. I was pretty happy. Its funny, I don't really like shopping for myself, but I love shopping for Ana!

My Love

Today I found out that my friend is having husband troubles. I won't go into details, but I just wanted to say to my husband Dave: Thanks so much for being awesome. I know I complain when you don't do the dishes with me or leave your socks on the floor, but honestly, if that's all I have to whine about, I'm pretty lucky. You are a good husband who keeps your covenants and honors your Priesthood and I am so grateful for that! And you are a great Dad! Ana loves you and so do I. I know you'll do great on your upcoming test. I love you.

My bike

is probably one of my favorite things about this summer. We got it for me in May and I rode it to class almost everyday. We also bought a bike trailer to go along with it and its fun to be able to take Ana along. Since school got out I haven't ridden it much, but I started again this week. I took Ana to the library on Tuesday and we checked out a few videos and books for her as well as a book for me. Then this morning I rode over to my friend's house (about 3 miles from our house) and we went to the park. It was way fun! Since we only have one car, its really nice to be able to get out of the house in the mornings while Dave is at work. Plus, it saves us on gas and I get some exercise. Are there any downsides? This picture is from the Specialized website, but it is exactly the same bike that I have.

Dirty dishes ...

are my absolute least favorite household chore. You put all this effort into doing them and then 5 mintues later, someone dirties a dish. uggh! The first 15 months of marriage, we had a dishwasher and still I would go a few days before doing the dishes. They would pile up and when we didn't have any clean bowls I would resign myself to an hour + of dish doing.

We moved into our current apartment in September and guess what - no dishwasher. For the first few months I would let the dishes pile up for days and then, when we had no counter top or clean bowls, would grudgingly wash the dishes until my back hurt and I was grumpy.

Well, in January I decided that I wasn't going to do that anymore. I made a goal to do up all the dishes everyday, and I've done pretty well. I am so much happier when I wake up and the kitchen is clean. There have been times when I have put them off, especially while I was in school, that I'd let them go a few days and then once again I was grumpy.

What is the point in writing all this you ask? Because I've had a breakthrough. It is a two part breakthrough. 1 - my mother-in-law has the following poem on her kitchen wall. I recently read it and it really sunk in. So I memorized it and sometimes I recite it while doing the dishes to help me along. I really like it.

"Thank God for dirty dishes. They have a tale to tell
While other folks go hungry, we're eating very well

With Home and Health and Happiness, we shouldn't want to fuss
For by this stack of evidence, God's very good to us."

2 - I did my dishes after every meal the last 2 days. It has been really nice to only spend 15 minutes or less at a time!

Lets just see if I can keep this dishes evolution up!

baby troubles

This is what Ana's back looked like yesterday.
Today, it was mostly on her arms and legs. I noticed a slight rash about a week and a half ago, and when we went to the doctor last week he gave me a prescription cream for it. But this week its gotten a lot worse. I talked to my sister (who is a nurse) and her husband (who is a doctor and has specialty in skin) and they told me it looks like a systemic allergy. In other words. She's allergic to something she's been eating. Its either eggs, since they are in everything and she's eaten a lot of stuff with them in lately or peanut butter which she's had before, but more often recently). So, I have to keep her away from those things. If its not gone in a week then it might be milk, but my sister didn't think so. On top of that, she's been seriously constipated for a while and today it was so bad we kept her home from church. So, here's my dilemma - my daughter is underweight and I need to fatten her up, but I can't give her peanut butter or eggs due to allergies or cheese, bananas or applesauce since those will worsen her constipation. So, I'm stuck. I feel so bad for her, I just want her to be healthy and happy.

playing

Ana was playing around the house today. I loved watching her find things to play with. She climbed on the couch, then back down and went to pull the books off the bookshelf. I just couldn't help snapping a few pictures.

Confession #1

I love cheesy church novels. Since finishing Harry Potter, I needed something light to read and so I've read three of these books in the last week. You know the type, they all basically follow the same plot line... Girl and boy meet, usually there is some animosity between them at first, or else its love at first sight and they can't admit it to themselves. Then there is some problem - a mystery, a secret, or one of them isn't a member of the church or something like that they need to overcome. Then the end when they confess their undying love in completely cheesy terms and live Happily Ever After. I love them! Of course, some are better than others. My favorite are the mystery type. Betsy Brannon Green's books are usually really good. Two of my favorite's by her are Hearts in Hiding and Until Proven Guilty. Another one that is really good is Closing In. The 3 I read this week were pretty good. Two of them were by Rachel Ann Nunes and she can be a little overly-churchy at times. And I think Anita Stansfield gets a little too tragic in her books. The other one I read was by Sierra St James called What the Doctor Ordered and it was my favorite of the three. I like them because they are really quick reads, they are wholesome, and they are just light feel-good books.