Cement

We got one thing done with great success this weekend. The majority of our new sidewalk has been poured without incident. Allen was worried about doing the cement by himself, but ended up doing a great job. The weather held out just long enough, too.

Davis was very upset that he couldn't be outside working with Allen.

I drove back and forth to pick up loads of cement while Allen formed the cement at home.

Good work, Allen.

The Bosque Farms Horror

Ok, so we don't think our house was built on an ancient burial ground; although we did find a completely in-tact goat head (horns and all) buried out with the horses. And, we don't think we're possessed - yet. But, the outside sure feels like a curse!

We expected to work hard. We expected to encounter some resistance. This is getting ridiculous. The septic tank needs to be broken in, pumped, the sides broken down and then filled with sand. Not too hard, right? We try to rent a pump and the good ol' Home Depot, but they won't let us because the pumps aren't to be used for septic tanks (the water is rain water, not actual sewage in our tank). I tell Allen I'll go back and tell him I have a pool to pump out. Problem solved. Allen says no, we'll just wait until the good rental place has another pump in. Ok, fine.

Even Lexi looks overwhelmed.

Now, the well. Cursed well. Let's look back. About 2 months ago, Allen decides to do this himself. We rent the equipment for a few hundred dollars, arrange for some help, and buy the pump. All the work gets done, no water. We rent the equipment again, buy even more pipe, and get some help. No water. Finally, all sorts of people start telling us about this wonderful guy who will make it aaaalll better. He comes out. No problem! Easy work! "I'll just order this part and we'll be done by Wednesday." That was over a month ago. The part was sent wrong, back ordered, not sent, etc, etc. Finally, he comes out yesterday, sees that we're in for more work than he thought and says he'll be back today. He comes out around noon and gets to working. He pulls the pipe out, cuts it off, puts it back in the ground, puts the pump on, and we have water. Only, it's pulsing which means we have a loose fitting down in the dirt that is letting air in, causing the ebb and flow. He'll have to take the pump apart, pull the pipe out, and check all of the joints. He pulls the pipe out, checks the joints, and puts the jack hammer type thing on the very tippy top of the pipe to pound the pipe back down in the ground. What, you say? It's broken? Noo, can't be. Not on a job that has gone as well as this one! Nope, he leaves with his broken down junk and 25 feet worth of pipe sticking up into the sky. Worst case scenario, he'll be back on Tuesday. Yeah, 'cause we heard that before - A MONTH AGO!

Before.

Looks hopeful, doesn't it?

After.

The Normal Ongoings at Our House

The whacker did it's job and pushed all of the stones under the dirt. I thought Allen had covered them with more dirt, but it turns out it really does do all it promises.
Feedin' I Be Streakin
Lexi decided to eat dinner with her "superstar" glasses one night.

Olympic Gold

I have never watched an Olympic games with such enthusiasm before in my life. We stayed up late every night just to see Michael Phelps and his quest for all of those gold medals. He is an unbelievable athlete, but his mental stamina is what really impressed me. We always loved to see his last turn at the wall when he would suddenly come up a body length in front of everyone else. I'd look over and Allen would be doing the dolphin kick while sitting on the couch. He looked like he was having some sort of spasm!

Of course, we were drawn into the gymnastics events since they were aired with the swimming. I have to say that I think China faked all sorts of documents and let little girls compete. Are we really going to find anything? Um, NOO. The same government that helped break the rules is clearly going to cover their tracks. And, Nastia got robbed on the high bars. No doubt about it.

We loved seeing the men's volleyball team rally considering the tragedy that engulfed the team when the coach's family was murdered within the first few days of the games. Track was a bit of a let down, but that Bolt guy is amazing!

I was bummed that the equestrian events were held 5 hours away and only aired sporadically. The U.S. doesn't typically medal, but this time in the individual we got silver. A true amateur rider came in and had a beautiful ride in the show jumping. I expect professionals to ride like professionals and be extremely competitive. When you think of the financial commitment, time commitment, cost of the horse, cost of transporting the horse to China, etc., etc. seeing someone without a professional backing who is doing this as supplement to their regular life go in and ride with the big guys, it's really motivating and especially sweet.

Overall, I think the U.S. did a great job and made me very proud.

Workin'

Lexi's most used phrase of late: "Daddy's workin'!" She sure hit the nail on the head with that one (no pun intended). Allen has had the forms set for the sidewalk leading from the house to the pasture done for a few weeks now. However, we've had rain everyday for the last month and that is not a great recipe for concrete. With monsoon season coming to a close, Allen has mapped out a new schedule for the lawn that gets us done by the last weekend in September.

Saturday morning I gave a lesson at 8 and ran to another at 9:30. I got home around 10:30 so Allen could get his part of the day started. He rented this 100 lb. whacker (yep, that is the official term and it looks like one of those carpet cleaners you rent from Safeway or Walmart) pounded the dirt inside the frames so that this Thursday, he can pour. Late afternoon, after he took the whacker back, we went for a long swim next door. That was a really nice reprieve. We were expecting hay to be delivered around 6:30 so we pitter-pattered around outside waiting for the delivery. We had already bathed Lexi, but as you'll see, that was a totally pointless endeavor. At 8:30 that night, the 20 bales of hay finally showed up so Allen helped unload that. Lexi and I stayed inside to eat some long overdue dinner while Allen helped unload.

The frames before the whacker.

Lexi tells us: I'm pullin' da weeds! Thanks, Lexi.

We also finally finished the bathroom. We painted and installed a new toilet. We would have been done last weekend, but as Allen was cutting the bolts to put the little plastic caps on the bottom (the absolute last step), the entire seal gave way underneath the toilet. So, he had to buy the parts, take the toilet off, put a new metal seal and wax ring on, and re-install the toilet. We finally got that all wrapped up. The finished product was worth the work!

This was moments before the big fallout on the first installation.

The new-and-improved method for cutting bolts (when you don't have a bolt cutter).

Lexi was helping Allen work all afternoon.

Ta Da!

The Great Finale

I've been searching for these clips for a week now. Allen and I loved watching So You Think You Can Dance this season. There were lots of great performances, but this one featuring two guest dancers just blew our minds. You'll have to click on the link since I can't copy the video (click on video to see), but it's amazing. Another one of my favorites was this number (click on number to see).

I have to say, my favorite dancer was Will and he was voted off a few weeks ago. I thought he had great talent and versatility. So what if he seemed aloof? He obviously had a little personality 'cause his James Brown solo (click on solo to see) was pretty good. He was amazing, I thought. Behind him, I was pretty impressed with Katee. Here's Will and Katee together. (click on together to see)

Of course, Joshua and Twitch were very fun to watch and did really well with the different genres despite their individual focus as hip hop dancers. You have to admit that Joshua is one of the most athletic guys considering he's as wide as he is tall. All in all, we had a great time watching the show and will probably be addicted next year too.

Sick House

The cold that Lexi had 2 weeks ago has come back to haunt us. This time, all 3 of us are sick. She came down with it super fast in the night again and the next day I had it too. Now Allen has it as well. Lexi seems to feel pretty good today, but her nose is like a leaky, green faucet. I usually ask her if she'd like to blow her nose. Sometimes, she runs over because she is clearly uncomfortable. Most of the time when I ask, "Would you like to blow your nose?" I get: "No, I'm allright. Thank you momma."

My energy level is like 2 on a 1-10 scale. Our ward was in charge of decorations for the stake dance last night and I stayed to chaperone. This morning, it caught up with me in a big way. Allen is able to take stuff to feel better so he's doing the best out of all of us, but he's not feeling 100%. He's worked the last two weekends with 12 hour days each day. He's still trying to make some dents in our work at home, too. Plus, we've become addicted to the Olympics this week and have been staying up late to watch. So, we are stretching ourselves just enough to be vulnerable to this summer bug. This weekend, we're trying to take it easy by doing some weed pulling and painting in the house rather than trenching the sprinkler lines.

Lexi can climb up into our bed by herself and has been spending some time there these last few days. She usually says, "I wanna lay down." After she gets settled, she says, "Come on, Daddy. Come on, Momma. Come and lay down with me." Considering how yucky we feel, we've been pretty quick to take her up on her offers.

A Boy and His Horse

Allen feeds I Be Streakin' in the morning and sometimes at night. They have developed quite the relationship. I Be Streakin' is like a dog and loves any amount of attention you'll give him and has so much personality. I went out to feed tonight and he chased me around a bit. Usually, after his feed is in the stall, he's quick to go eat and leave us alone. However, he followed me to the gate and whinnied when Allen walked toward him. I told Allen he better jog the horse to his stall. If Allen runs towards the barn, the horse runs behind him. Before he did that though, he ran up and down along the fence line and I Be Streakin' loved it. He would run the length of the fence and then run over to the barn. He would turn and look at Allen. Allen would jump up and down and I Be Streakin' would charge the fence and they would run back the other way together. I got a quick video of them after they had done this about 10 times. They were both a little winded!

Running the fence.

This is their routine when Allen has time to play at feeding time.

Diaper woes continued

If you think you're sick of reading about this, imagine how sick I am of dealing with it. Last night, I put a plus size, super long, extra absorbent maxi pad in Lexi's overnight diaper. The poor thing thought she had pooped her pants and was walking around bow legged and pulling at her shorts. But, she was dry this morning.

This afternoon, I changed her right before her nap. She woke up early because her diaper had leaked yet again. She was in her diaper a total of 1.5 hours and her shorts were soaked and her sheets too.

I've had at least 2 leaky diapers a day for the last 7 days. So far I've confirmed my hatred for Huggies diapers, pondered the notion that she may have a health condition since she pees so much, and have mastered making the crib in about 20 seconds flat.

Up For the Vote

Now that we know we're having a girl, the name game begins. Allen and I have very different tastes. I'm going to put our latest contenders up for vote. Of course, the votes won't actually determine the name, but it might be fun to see what you all think.

Jenna
Bree
Gracie
Lilly
Laurel
Carly
Cayla/Kayla
Colette
Sophie
Lisette
Rayna
Tessa
Emma
Natalie
Reagan
Avery
Emerson

Stop the Madness!

Well, I thought they had worked. We had one leak-free night. Since then, every morning, a load of wash is now part of our routine. Aaahhh! I'm so frustrated. I mean, really, there are kids that are way bigger than Lexi who don't have leaky diapers all of the time.

We've tried every brand, different sizes, and even the super duper overnight ones. I hear they sell liners and I guess that will be our next step. If those don't work then what? Besides pushing her into potty training, what else am I to do? Just get used to the laundry? (The idea of her sleeping in urine is too much for me, though.) Put two diapers on? Buy adult Depends and hope that they might contain the overflow? How do I stop the madness?

More Lexi-isms

I just bought a new CD for Lexi's room for naps and night time. The first song is a woman and the first line says the word "sea". That song is now the "Ariel" (or Arl) song as Lexi calls it. She sings along in the highest pitched voice she can but only through the word sea because she doesn't know the rest.

The next song on the CD is "Jesus Once Was a Little Child". That's the "J'sus" song. "I ant the J'sus song" she tells me.

She throws her baby and tells me the baby is jumping. Then she runs over and asks the baby, "Whaaaat happened? You ok?" and proceeds to cuddle, pat and then kiss the baby.

She'll go in the bathroom and say,"Wanna see Wexi." That means she wants to look at herself in the mirror.

The other night at dinner she told me her tummy hurt. I asked her why. "There's a baby in there." Oh, you have a baby in there? "Yeeesss. It's the pink one. You have the blue one (as she points to my tummy)." Oh, ok.

While we were playing on the swing set, she found her pink cowgirl hat. She put it on and said, "I wanna ride the horse." I asked her if she was ready to ride now that she had her hat on. "Yeesss. I'm gonna go ride the horse. Om on, mommy (come on, mommy)."

She was helping me put clothes in the laundry basket one day. I would toss the clothes out of the closet and onto the floor near the basket. Each time I threw the a piece of clothing out she would say, "Thank you mommy (she had to say it pretty fast 'cause I was tossing clothes out one right after another)." I said, "No, Lexi, thank you!" "You're welcome, mommy."

We were coming in from the swing set and she tripped on the walkway. She hit pretty hard so I asked her if she was ok. Her response: "I'm sad. I'm crying. I'm all right." She then walked into the house like nothing happened.

Make sure you have the songlist paused and the volume up when you watch this video.

One Thing After Another

There have been a few little things that have happened over the last few days that add up quick and make for exhausting work.

I found out Monday night that I was in charge of the all girl mutual activity for Wednesday. My counselor was supposed to have it, but she had been gone helping with her new grandbaby and forgot. It's really not that hard to do, and I found a great activity, but it took some extra time I wasn't planning on dedicating to YW Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tuesday morning when I went in to get Lexi, her diaper had leaked and her bed was soaked. I stripped it all and proceeded to put everything in the wash. Of course, she wants pink. Pink, however, is covered with pee. I tell her pink needs to be washed and she starts crying. She wants her babies, too, but they need to go in the wash with pink. It's just too much for her to handle. We get through it, but she is a little weepy all morning. At one point, she runs up to me and is way distraught. She says her diaper is broken and she is tugging at her pants. Before I can grab her to see what is wrong, she turns around and runs as fast as she can to the bathroom and I quickly see the problem. I grabbed the camera and took this picture before setting it all to rights.

Because of the rain, my lessons from Tuesday morning cancelled, but I had to make one of them up that evening. My client has a show coming up so we try really hard not to miss any scheduled lessons. Tuesday, I made dinner and ran out the door as Allen got home so I could be back by 7 to help with the bedtime routine. Allen also wanted to spray and take care of weeds. The bishop ended up coming by around 6:30 to ask Allen how he felt about being called to teach seminary (we both had mild heart attacks at the thought of him teaching semiary and me staying in YW - no, they wouldn't release me). Lexi was doing pretty well, but after about 35 minutes of taking care of herself, she got into some mischief. She opened the cabinet under the fish tank and pulled out liquid ammonia that is bright red. She dumped it out going from the fish tank all around the back of the couch to the center of the family room where she greeted Allen - with red stains on her legs, feet and the carpet. Of course, it permanently stained everything. I get home to a scowling Allen and screaming Lexi. Aaaah, love at home.

Wednesday morning, I have a riding lesson so I'm preparing for a young woman to come over and watch Lexi for a few hours since my regular sitter is out of town. I go in to get Lexi first thing and her diaper has leaked, yet again. We go through the same routine. I checked some posts online to see what people recommend for heavy wetter, get some ideas, and plan to run some errands before my lesson. My lesson is 1/2 an hour away but near a Walmart so if I leave a little early, I can get stuff for YW and new diapers. I had to wait a little longer than I wanted to change the wash out so that her stuff would be dry when I got home so she could go down for a nap. When I get home from my lesson (about 2 hours later), I pick her up to take the sitter home and she is all wet - with pee. What is the deal with these diapers?!? (The sitter had changed her at least once in the 2 hours I was gone so I can't assign blame there, you know?) I change Lexi, load up and take our sitter home. Thank goodness I got the new diapers.

I get Lexi fed, changed (in the new diapers) and put down for her nap about 1. When she wakes up, I head in there to see that the new diapers have leaked too. This time, Lexi looks at me and says, "Pink wash? Babies wash?" before I even get her out of the crib. I tell her yes, get her fixed and head to the laundry room again - this is the 3rd time in 2 days. I've had this awful migraine for 3 days and it is making me even more frustrated, too. Clearly, the remedy isn't working and I'll return some unopened diapers and buy new ones after mutual.

Mutual turned out great. We played "For the Strength of Youth" Jeopardy and had white chocolate covered popcorn for snack. At 8:30 when we were done, I went over to Walmart. I got overnight diapers in a bigger size and regular diapers in a bigger size. I got home at 9:30 p.m. Allen had mopped the kitchen and done the dinner dishes. He was out the door and spraying weeds before I got to say "Hi, how did things go?" Did I mention, I hadn't had dinner because I ran out the door as he got home so I could set up for mutual? I put the groceries away, changed Lexi into the new overnight diapers, and sat down for some yogurt and Cheez-its. At least I had recorded So You Think You Can Dance. I watched a few minutes before Allen came back in and went to painting in the guest bath. I asked him if I could help, but he said no. So, I finished my elaborate meal and he came out shortly. We watched the show together and went to bed around 11:30. (This morning, she was completely dry! The overnights in size bigger worked!)

A Lazy Morning

Today was a little different for Lexi and I. We've had rain since about 2 a.m. so my lessons were cancelled. I decided to cancel with the sitter, too, and we just hung out at home. Usually, we're up and gone by 7:30 so I can drop her at the sitters and get to my lessons by 8 a.m.

She slept in until almost 8 a.m. which is a nice break from me having to get her up most of the time. We lazed around a bit. Lexi isn't a big breakfast eater, but I offered her Mickey Mouse pancakes and she actually said yes. I'm not a very good cook with the breakfast menu so I've been working on making perfect MM pancakes. I added some cinnamon and sugar to the batter and she ate a whole MM pancake herself. I always make lots and freeze them in baggies so when she will eat, I can pull them out quick and have a fun breakfast.

Sometimes, Lexi pretends she is Cookie Monster. The syrup makes for a little extra clean up, and we don't usually let her do this with regular food, but I let it go this time and she had fun.

Who's that girl?

We had our 21 week ultrasound today. I got there 10 minutes early at 8:50, with an extremely full bladder, waited until 9:10 when I was told I was at the wrong location (even though they had instructed me to go this certain spot). Thankfully, when I got to the OB area they said there was really no reason for a full bladder and I was off the hook. I got back in and we started at 9:30 a.m.

We had to go a location that we don't usually go to so we got a tech we didn't know and he had an intern with him. They made the comment they weren't getting very good images. He explained that the baby was still small (but normal for our age), the machine was not the one he preferred, and that "you know, there's a little extra here" as he pats my stomach and causes the vision blurring fat to ripple around for about 20 seconds. I then asked, "Did you just say I'm too fat for us to be able to see the baby?" He laughed and said no. But, I'm pretty sure that was what he meant. (In my own defense, I've only gained 2 lbs. through the whole pregnancy!)

Fat or no fat, we still got some great pics. Everything looks great. The baby is measuring right on for our due date of December 15, 2008. Super active. I think they chased the baby for most of the exam. We were in there for an hour and a half! The intern was grateful for the chance to do some hands on stuff and they thanked us a bunch for being so patient.

The heels are together, and the toes pointing out.

This is the baby yawning. The big black space is her mouth. Her nose and eyes disappeared while she was telling us how bored she was with the whole thing.

Ok, for those of you who aren't used to looking at blurry black and whites...look for the "hamburger" (it's sideways). The baby's bottom is on the left with the thigh bones pointing towards the right. In the middle of the sideways V, you'll see 2 bright white lines and one thin line. I'm sure you get the picture by now. So, girl #2 is on the way! (Sorry if the details offended anyone, but she's just a baby!)

ENTHUSIASM!!!!

Give me an E! Give me a N! Give me a T-H-U! Give me a S! Give me an I! Give me an A-S-M! What's that spell? ENTHUSIASM! What's the spell? ENTHUSIASM! I can't hear you!! What's the spell? ENTHUSIASM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is why I am exhausted as a parent. I was pondering why it is that being with a 2 year old person is so tiring. It's not really the chores, or dragging along an extra person everywhere you go. No, for me it's the ongoing effort to be excited about doing the most mundane things.

For example: it's not "Hey, Lexi, go put your toys away" and I can leave it at that. It's "Why don't we pick up our toys so we can go outside and swing? Clean up, clean up, everybody clean up (in sing songy voice). Great job! Ok! Let's go swing!" Times 100 all day long.

Since I'm not an overly enthusiastic person, pulling that to the surface all day, everyday takes a little bit of work on my part. Lexi responds well and we avoid lots of frustration when I respond that way rather than just yelling at her all of the time (shocking, I'm sure), but by the end of the day I'm pretty ready to be my old cynical self.