A Week!

It's amazing that I'm actually posting again after only one week! I hardly know what to write. I haven't really gone anywhere or done anything exciting since we can't drive much with gas so expensive...

Oh yes, I did get a new cell phone this week. It's really nice too! When we moved out here we got new phones with Cingular/ATT, but they were the free ones that aren't very nice...and that was almost 2 years ago (where has the time gone?). Since then my phone has been dropped probably a thousand times, and nearly been flushed down the toilet once (or maybe twice). Needless to say it was about dead and we had a 'free upgrade' on our plan. So I got a Motorola Razor phone-it's soooo nice compared to my old phone and it has about a hundred more/better features (including voice activated calling and some other fun things). Joe will get a new phone in the next week or so too, but they were out of the one he wanted at the store we went to. It's nice to be able to talk on the phone without it being on speakerphone the whole time, and I'm not afraid that every day may be its last. I gave my old phone to Karen, but now that it doesn't call daddy or grandma or Calista it's not nearly as interesting.

The other exciting thing (at least to me) is that Joe has now finished writing all of his papers for classes this semester! It seems like he's been working on school stuff non-stop all semester (probably because he has been) since he had to take an extra class to get his master's this semester instead of waiting until the winter. So he was taking 15 graduate credit hours, plus doing 20 hours of work with a professor (including TAing 2 large labs) and lots of 'extra' research with several other professors and presenting at a couple of conferences. This is all in addition to his YM pres. stuff that takes most of Sunday, Wednesday nights, and sometimes Friday and/or Saturday too. I'm going to be really happy to have my husband back, even if he's still working a full amount of hours over the summer.

And speaking of Summer... our plans for Utah: We get in on Thursday around noon. We don't have plans for anything that day yet, except stopping by Grandma Zillner's and seeing my family wherever they happen to be. Friday I don't know for sure what's happening yet, but I've heard rumors of a Howes' reunion in the evening. Saturday is Calista's wedding and reception in Alpine (it's also the day Jason Flack is getting married-congrats to him, and I hope people who are going to his reception in Lindon will be willing to drive a bit farther to Calista's which is out in Alpine...). Sunday is Mother's Day, and I don't know what's happening for sure; we'll probably go to church with my parents but I don't know if it will be our old ward in Orem or my Grandma's ward in Midvale or what... Monday my family is leaving for the reception in Nevada and we have no plans from that point on until we leave for NC (we should leave for the airport around noon on Thursday 14th). So it looks like our free evenings will be Thursday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday for us to get together with Joe's family and any other friends in the area (unless I'm forgetting something which is always possible). I'm so excited! It's only 2 weeks away now! I've also started a list of places where I need to go shopping/out to eat. Here's what I have so far: Arctic Circle, Los Hermanos (wedding!!), Cafe Rio, Deseret Book, Distribution Center, BYU Bookstore, ...okay that's enough for now. TTFN!

Birthday Sharing, Utah update

It seems like everyone I know knows someone who shares the same birthday as them. Not all of us are as cool as our sister-in-law Kathleen Allen who has the amazing ability to remember just about everyone's birthday, but most of us remember when we meet someone who shares our same significant day. For example, Karen shares her exact birthday (5-23-06) with Joshua Sosa, a cute little boy in our ward. Rachel shares her exact birthday (1-18-08) with Bryant Whiting from our ward and Katryn Bockholt, my friend Krystal's little boy.

I also share my birthday, though I don't know anyone born the same year. In my ward in Orem I had a YW leader with my birthday and my friend Becky's sister shares my birthday. It's funny that although I haven't seen either of them for a long time I still remember this near-useless (but interesting nonetheless) fact. This year was a bit exciting for me since I now know another person who shares my birthday. If you've been reading my blog (or want to catch up...), you'll know that last September my friend Jaimie's husband John died a week after a big car accident. It was a horrible and tragic situation, since they had just found out they were expecting. Well, baby Grace Johanna Martinson was born on my birthday last week! I haven't been to see her yet, but I hear she's big and cute and I know she'll be just great because she was born on a good day. ;) So now I have another person to remember every year, which is fun.

Now, for a quick change of subject... I know a couple weeks ago I said we were coming to Utah and would be driving. We were going to arrive on the 9th and leave on the 13th, but our plans have changed somewhat. Due to the rising cost of gas (it's 3.40 here...) we started looking for plane tickets, and yesterday Joe found a steal on Orbitz. We will now be flying in the morning of the 8th (arriving around 11am) and leaving the evening of the 14th (around 5 pm). While we were looking forward to a road trip, we are much more excited that we can save a few hundred dollars and spend a longer amount of time visiting our family and friends. Unfortunately we won't be stopping in Indiana to visit Joe's family, but with the money we save on this trip we might go visit sometime this summer...maybe July 4th, we don't know for sure anything about that yet. So anyway, now I'm really looking forward to seeing Shaille and her family, and hopefully a lot of other people too (like a family who will be shortly moving to Egypt, hint hint ;) ). We're still not sure where we're staying, but it will probably be somewhere in Utah county, maybe with my aunt but we're not sure yet. I just wanted to let y'all out there know what's going on with us.

Last note: congrats to Andy Heiss and anyone else who is graduating from BYU and/or any other schools this semester! It's a great feeling to be done with school!!!

Pictures!

Happy girls
Helping make a cake for RS
Wearing Rachel's carrying pack

Karen likes to help with the Laundry, though how helpful it is I'm still not sure about.
Can you tell which teams we like to watch?
I'm a potato head!

Karen LOVED doing the eggs for Easter, even though she kept dropping them (good thing they were already cooked!).
Look mom, lots of eggs! Listen, they shake! Ooh, yummy candy! Welcome to Easter morning.
Look at the beginning of the chub! (3/25) She's getting big so fast!!

Rachel and I at the Priest/Laurel Prom
Girls with Grandparents!

Rachel always likes to be swaddled and Karen wanted to try it out; she's almost too big for her blanket though!
Karen's Easter/Calista's wedding dress.
Rachel on her blessing day. She's so cute! I love the dress (thanks again Mom).

Utah!

I just realized that we're leaving for Utah a month from Monday!!! (of course we won't get there until late on the 9th...) I'm so excited to go see all my family and hopefully my friends too! It's crazy but it seems like I have fewer and fewer friends left in UT every time we visit; we must all be venturing out of the bubble and into the wide world. Anyway, I just wanted to mention that we wanted to get together with all our friends on the 12th of May sometime. We don't have anything planned yet and we don't know who's going to be around but I thought I'd put it out there and maybe we can get a little something together?

(Sorry no pics, but I was just going to put this up quick; the pics should go up by the end of the weekend or Tuesday at the latest.)

Karen and Rachel

Here's a bit about what my girls have been doing the past month or so...

Karen has definitely hit her 'terrible twos'. It's not that she's completely evil all the time or is even malicious in her intents most of the time, but she is quite destructive and most of what she does is now counterproductive. If I tell her not to do something, like eat old cereal she picked up off the floor (I'm getting better at keeping the Kitchen floor clean, but sometimes...), she'll do it even faster. If I tell her to do something, like put her toys away or walk with me to the car, she runs as fast as she can the other way. One of her favorite things right now is to run away from me the minute she gets out the front door and start climbing the stairs. She's really fast and usually gets at least to the second floor before I can catch her, if not the third. No matter what little punishments I think of (not letting her walk outside, things like that) she still thinks it's the best game in the world. I even tried starting to drive away once, but she just sat there on the third floor walkway laughing at me. On the other hand, she is extremely intelligent and knows her ABC's really well-she sings the song, can tell you what any capital letter is (and some lower-case, but not all yet), counts to 10 by herself, and 'reads' herself stories (the ones she loves the best and now has memorized). She likes to 'help' get dinner ready and empty the dishwasher (she puts the silverware in the drawer by herself) but ends up spilling more food and making bigger messes than it's worth sometimes. She knows how to check if things are too hot (like burners on the stove, the oven, and food that just came from said places), but sometimes forgets to check; while G&G Allen were here she burned her hand on the electric griddle when she pulled a chair up next to it and I wasn't watching closely. Karen's gotten over throwing things at Rachel and I durning nursing time and instead brings us books to read or has us sing songs with her during that time. She also is really ready to potty train, but I'm worried about what she'll do with her potty-power when we do start (see Nancy's blog that I read today about her Rachel...). At one of Rachel's doctor appointments Karen stood on the scale and came in at 29 1/2 lbs. It's amazing that she won't even be 2 for another 2 months!

Rachel is growing like a weed. Her 2 month checkup was 2 weeks ago now (has it really been that long? Where does the time go?). At that point she was 11 lbs and 22 1/2 inches, which means she's gaining about half a pound per week (so she's probably 12 lbs now). She's almost doubled her birthweight and she's not even 3 months old yet. Unfortunately she had to get the nasty shots at the appointment too, 5 different medicines in 3 different shots. ;( She did okay for the most part, but the afternoon after the shots she screamed for about an hour straight because her legs hurt her and she kept thrashing them around, it was so sad!! She's a big and basically healthy little girl though I think she's got some seasonal allergies right now (mine are terrible) and she got the nasty cold that Karen brought us from Nursery last week. Today she hit a new milestone-she sucked her thumb all by herself! She's been working on it for a week or two and she finally got it today! She also has the cutest smiles that she gives to mom and dad and sometimes Karen. She's working on rolling over, but so far has only gotten up on her side and then been stuck.

So that's my girls! They drive me bonkers and give me no rest during the day, but at least they sleep pretty good at night (Rachel sleeps through about half the time now, and doesn't ever get up before 4:30, which is really nice). Well, feeding time has come again so I have to be done. Pictures next time for sure!!!