Get this

The registration for the Excursion, Saturn and travel trailer are all due in March and April. Allen gets the renewal notices and promptly sends in payment for all three at the end of February. We got tags for the Excursion and the trailer, but not the Saturn.

He calls the MVD to find out what happens, and is told to call another number. He calls that number and gets a busy signal. He tries again; busy signal.

Today, he calls the original number and is given yet another number. He gets voice mail. Finally, he tries one more time and gets a live (do not mistake live for intelligent, here) person. He explains that he sent checks for all 3 vehicles, but only received the tags for 2. He asks if they ever received the check for the Saturn, if it was cancelled, if it was lost, or if they have any record. No, they say. We have no record of the check at all. He requests another form to be sent, they won't do that. They verify the address that the check should go to and then tell him he will be paying a LATE FEE because they didn't get the check in time (or lost it as we've been warned they would do). Allen says he can give them a copy of the check he's written previously to prove he did get it done way before the date. No good. He may have written the check at the end of February, but that doesn't mean he really mailed it. He tells the woman that he clearly paid for his other registrations (why would he suddenly try to jerk them around now?) and has another check written the same day that never made it to them, apparently, but that he did send all 3 checks within a weeks time. He says any judge will support his case and that he'd like to speak with her manager. Ok, she says. He's put on hold.

I'm sure you know how this turned out. (She never came back to the line. We waited 15 minutes.) Moral of the story: the motor vehicle department is as corrupt as the politicians in this state but a whole lot stupider. (Yes, it's a word.)

Break on through to the other side

Well, after spiking a 103.7 fever at midnight, Lexi has turned the corner. She is still very tired, but has no fever. No barfing since 9:30 a.m. yesterday, either.

As we were warned, the virus has made its way through her body. So, when I say, "Break on through to the other side", I do mean that literally. Thankfully, her little Pampers have stayed the course. She's been grabbing diapers throughout the day and yelling, "POOOTTT!!!" to let us know when she's ready for another changing of the guard.
Also, she picked up one new term: shart.

(No, I'm not kidding. And yes, she learned it from me.)

Trouble

Allen took these pictures the other day. Lexi has caught on quickly, I'll say. Hopefully, this isn't a sign of things to come....

One sick puppy

About 1 p.m. watching Sword in the Stone

Poor Loo. She's had a really hard night. About 12:45 a.m. I heard her cry out, but she settled down quick. At 1:10 or so, she cried again and that nagging mommy thing told me to get her. She had thrown up, of course. I called Allen (to his credit, he was there in a flash) giving him Lexi and taking barf duty. YUM!

We changed her, sponge bathed, stripped her bed - you know, the whole deal. We gave her some water and she promptly threw that up too. She got sick every 15 minutes for the next hour or so. Of course, she had nothing left in her tummy so she was especially unhappy when she did heave. Then, she slowed down to every half an hour. Finally, around 5, she stopped for a bit.

Allen was Super Dad and held her all night while trying to sleep in between barfings. I would come out, clean her up, change the barf bucket (yes, we've resorted to the barf bucket technique), and then go back to my room. The whole idea was that I would sleep a little so that I could talk early a.m. shift while Allen tried to catch up on sleep before going to work. Dumbo was on continuous play and then Cinderella made her efforts to calm the baby. Well, none of us got sleep despite our brilliant planning, but that's how it goes.

So, at 6, Allen got up, showered and went to work. We gave Lexi pedialyte with about a tablespoon of juice (she did not want water since she'd already puked that up) right before he took off. I gave her a bath and we settled down. At 7, I stepped into my room to do something and came back a minute later to find her drenched in barf saying, "Juice? Juice?" I cleaned her up again and put another load (is that 4 now?) in the wash. At 8:30 she asked for more juice so I tried again. At 9:30, well, you know by now. She was burning up so I took her temp. 100.6. Not too bad.

Now, it's 11 and we're pushing fluids since she can't keep anything down. 1 tsp. every 15 minutes. She won't even eat ice chips - and for those of you who have seen Lexi with ice - she's feeling really bad if she won't eat ice chips. I take her temp again - 101.9! Whoa. Not that high, really, but went up pretty quick. She can't keep Tylenol down so I use a cold compress. Boy, did she hate that! She passed out about 11:30 in the football pillow.

We have a dr.'s appointment at 3:50. Her temp is back down to 101.3. Making progress here. Anyhow, while we're well versed in barf (severe acid reflux for the first 15 months of her life), fevers we aren't. She's a really healthy little girl. She's never had an ear infection or anything worth worrying about. I'm know she's got a little bug and will be just fine, but she sure is miserable. We've had lots of good cuddle time since she's been sleeping for most of the morning and wants to be held, and I'm sure she'll back to her normal self by the weekend.

Lexi Speak

Allen and I pretty obsessed with anything Lexi so we always get a kick out of listening to her language. In an effort to help clarify some of her chirping, we put together a list of the things she says most often. Since we're putting up more and more video, this might help those of you who speak regular English to know what the heck is going on. Of course, everything has Lexiflection (or Lexi inflection) which means lots of high, high notes and a very sing-songy way of saying anything. Also, the words are repeated, getting louder each time, until someone acknowledges what she's saying by repeating the word. She says about 2 new words a day so this list will not be comprehensive. =o)

• Mommy = Mommy
• Daddy! = Daddy
• Nanna = Nanna
• goot = goat (meaning goatheads in our yard that always get stuck in the bottom of our feet)
• What dis? = What is that?
• anmal = animal (meaning animals at the zoo)
• Cocoas = horse
• gog = dog
• Dais = Davis
• Maaaaaa = Mia
• nak = snack
• flwr = flowers
• waer = water
• babas = bubbles (bathtub)
• oo-ooos = monkey
• raaarr = tigers, bears and/0r lions
• shoouuss = juice
• buuu = blue
• gee = green
• mis = mouse (from Dumbo)
• umb = Dumbo
• pupuh = purple
• ant des = Want this!
• sight, sight! = outside
• igs - eggs
• hewp - help!
• bbbbaaassss = box (sandbox)
• tickens = chicken (chicken tenders or nuggets)
• yaaaaaa = yeah!
• peek = pink
• rrwwaack = Fraggle Rock (kids show like muppets)
• Cocoas = My Little Pony
• abeee = Baby Einstein
• shir = shirt
• piaper = diaper
• badby = blanket
• coos = clothes
• rirarara = Cinderella (also called "rella")
• deet = eat
• ah gun = All gone!
• goot = owie! (this it not limited to painful goatheads, but anything that is bothering her - hangnail, scratch, spot on the wall - no kidding)
• cuckie = cookie (horse cookies - she likes to feed I Be Streakin')
• Caaal = Cayle (her friend)
• bas = bath
• heeerr = hair (sounds like "It's getting hot in herrrr")
• aaiight = Allright.
• ohkeyy = ok
• arnge = orange
• diiiirt = dirt
• Chiiiiii = Chili the rescue dog
• nanna = bananas
• appe = apple

You always wonder how a parent can understand what the heck their kids are saying, but if you live with a crazy person long enough, you too, will start to live in their wacko world. So, if I start yelling, "GOOOOT!" if I get annoyed by something, or "PEEEK!! PEEEK!! PEEEK!!" when I see something pink, please have sympathy for all I hear during the day is what you've read above.

Feeling pretty cool

So, being the techno buff that I am, I quickly emailed Laura requesting a lesson in how to add music to my blog once the jealousy surpassed my pride and I was willing to admit I needed some help. No, I couldn't figure it out on my own. But, she has Brent to help so she is automatically hooked in to all things cool in the world of electronics. So, I added some of my favorite songs to the blog. They will play while you read, but if you just want to listen, you can leave the page open and it'll go through them. They are listed at the very bottom of the page if you'd like to see what you're in for. Hope you enjoy rockin' out.
P.S. Thanks B & L.

Little Miss Green Thumb

Lexi asked to help water the plants today. Allen showed her how to hold the watering can and then we turned her loose. She did a pretty good job! I took a quick video of her efforts.

Whirlwind Weekend

Allen had Friday off so we were able to get tons done this weekend. Friday, Lexi and I took off at 8 a.m. to Jackson's (the name of the 2 year old who belongs to Kally who babysits Lexi). I went to Dulce's, rode 2 of her horses and gave 2 lessons. When I got back at 11:15, I saw that Allen had 4 dump truck loads of dirt delivered. Allen had also welded up the rest of the horse panel while I was out riding. He had installed a gate (he built it himself) and the latch we'll be using for all of our gates last weekend. He tacked up the horse panel, but ran out of time on the South end. So, he wrapped that all up, too. I Be Streakin' has a girlfriend here so I had Allen help me handle the horses while we hooked them up. That was Allen's first experience with horse copulation. He said, "Hi, Ho Silver!" I ran back to pick up Lexi at 11:45 (yeah, horses are really romantic so the whole date and hook up took about 20 minutes), got her home, down for a nap and then I headed back out to help Allen set posts for the paddocks. I went back in at 2:30 in case Lexi woke up and Allen got one run done on the paddocks by the time he had to head inside.

Oh, Friday was also my birthday. Allen kept asking me if I felt different. Um, no. Birthdays just aren't a real big deal to me. I love celebrating other people's b-days, but not much actually changes. It is nice to recognize the day a person came into the world though so I understand the broo-ha-ha. My big plan for the evening was to chaperon a youth dance. Love my calling! I played hooky. We opened presents and just lazed around. I got tons of cool stuff from lots of folks. Money, gift cards, a lavender/chamomile comfort bag that you put in the microwave and it heats up (and really smells good), cards, and some magazine subscriptions were some of the presents I received. Thanks everyone!

Allen's first ever gate made from scratch

For those of you who are mechanically inclined, these are the latches we'll be using around the place. The other side houses the same mechanism. For those of you who don't care, the pics of Lexi are below.

Gypsy the horse-dog

Saturday he went to a friend's house and put up wainscot (no idea if I spelled that right - also known as bead board) in their nursery. Casey (the dad of this family) is a professional welder (the one Allen's worked with quite a bit) so they traded Allen's time for Casey's. Casey usually puts up about 200 ft. of fence a day (the silver run of fence we have is 120 ft. and took us about a month of Saturdays to put up) so they should be able to get lots done together. Lexi and I hung out all day. Lexi was in a terrible mood and decided to take it out on Chilli so we went the rounds on that one. We ran over to the vet's to pick up Chilli's tags that had dropped in the parking lot last week and then went to see Allen. We got home, ate lunch, and napped. I had been corresponding with a family who wanted Chilli so I also got everything together so we could take him with us to ABQ since we were heading up there for date night. Allen got home at 5 with the babysitter, got dressed, and we left at 5:20 to meet up with Chilli's new family. They liked him and took him home. We went to dinner and tried to figure out what to do with the remaining 3 hours of babysitting time we had. Since we didn't want to spend any money, we chose not to go shopping in ABQ. So, we headed home. We got back at 8:15 p.m. Party animals!

I got a call at 9 p.m. saying the family wanted to bring Chilli back because he was marking their house up. Well, it turns out they had let their girl dog pee everywhere so he was going back to those spots and wetting. Great.

Princess of the Mountain with Gypsy watching intently.

Allen can't resist the opportunity to work in the yard. Do notice the tool of choice.

This morning, we went to the park for a bit. Lexi and Allen played on the slide but Lexi enjoyed running the most. I put a video up of them racing. We got back and since sperm don't sleep on Sundays, I arranged another meeting for Streakin' and Destiny. Lexi played in the dirt and climbed the big pile all by herself while I tended to the issues of procreation and Allen worked in the yard. Allen kept yelling out, "That's my girl! She's gonna be an athlete! What other kid would just climb up that big pile by themselves?" (I could think of a few, but I didn't want to burst his daddy bubble.)




All in all, a great weekend. We got to make good progress on the yard, eat out alone, almost get rid of a dog, play matchmakers, and spend time together as a family. What more could you ask for?

My boy

I'm so proud of my horse. I know that may sound silly, but he never fails to impress me. Amy M., a Beehive and advid rodeo rider, has been winning saddles, buckles and money for the last 2 years on her mare Destiny. Two weeks ago, Destiny went lame. Amy started riding her old barrel horse, Whinny, who also came up lame on Tuesday.

I happened to be at her house on I Be Streakin' (to give her a lesson on Whinny) and told her if she wanted, she could use him. He's never run barrels before in his life, but he obviously has speed. We had 2 days to prepare for tonight's exhibition and classes. So, we worked a little bit and tried to get him sort of patterened. Then, we loaded up and went over.

He was fantastic. Amy usually scores in the 18-19 second range on Destiny. Tonight, she ran a 23 second time and then a 22 second time. She improved by 1 whole second in one run's time. That is pretty incredible. Remember, this was the first time he'd ever run barrels. I got some good pics of them. She's hopeful with more work that they may be somewhat competitive this season. So, at 20 years young, I Be Streakin' will be starting a whole new career with a 13 year old girl. What a guy!

Amy and I Be Streakin' on their way to the finish line (or as we say in the rodeo world - on their way home)

PP Faith #2 - a required value experience

Discover the principles of faith taught by the mothers of Helaman’s stripling warriors. Read Alma 56:45–48 and Alma 57:21. Review what “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” (see page ii) says about a mother’s role. With a mother, grandmother, or leader, discuss the qualities a woman needs to teach children to have faith and to base their decisions on gospel truths. How can these principles help you in your life today and help you prepare to be a mother? Record your thoughts in your journal.

What a broad topic to try and put into a little box that is a journal. A woman needs first of all to be faithful herself. Living the example of who and what you hope for your kids is a necessary foundation. Invite your children to experience making faith based choices. Show them that the Lord knows each of individually and hears our requests. Help them to learn to love the Lord and have confidence in his timing. Thankfully, the gospel is taught line upon line, precept upon precept. If you start when your kids are just babies and teach them the basics of the gospel, making good choices (to some degree) will be automatic for them. While they are young, this is probably the easiest it ever will be during their lives.

Enter, school, friends, peer pressure, TV, cell phones, etc. Hopefully, you've taught them the basics and can now expand their learning as needed. For example, a friend of mine has a 12 year old son. They are not members, but are church going folk who are excellent examples of Christians. She is in the process of reviewing the curriculum for Health class and has to sign a waiver allowing her son to view the materials that will be presented. Her son begged her to let him participate because those who don't get a signature are sent out of the class. He just wants to belong; to not be different. His mom said this, "Son, we have been chosen to be different. I'm sorry that we might have to do things that aren't popular sometimes. We have to do what is right." Now, he's staying in class, but the message is absolute. For their family, the rubber is starting to hit the road.

Surround yourself with those people that support your good choices. Members, non-members, family, friends, whatever. Then, don't be afraid to do what is right, even when it isn't popular. As I like to say, "You can't live in the grey." Many issues in life are black and white, but popular society would have us believe we can blur those lines and still be ok. One of my least favorite sayings is this: "It's ok as long as he isn't hurting anyone else". Well, what about the person himself? What are those choices doing to his self-esteem? His love for himself? His self-worth?

Knowing we are children of our Heavenly Father is mandatory to wanting to make good choices for ourselves. To know that you have a divine lineage, that you are DIVINE, capable of living in the presence of supreme beings is knowledge that influences every choice you make. Showing your children their potential by loving them, encouraging them, disciplining them, and supporting them is crucial to helping them become gospel living, balanced and loving people. No kid is going to make it out of our homes perfect, but giving them the tools to work with what they've got is the best we can do.

Lastly, teach our kids to love the good things in life. Teach them to love family, children, education, the Temple, good friends, wholesome activities, to laugh easily, forgiveness, to be careful of judging others, to be grateful, quick to serve, to be realistic about life, and to be hopeful, even in the face of strife. Teach them to love themselves enough to want to be united as families forever. To love the idea of their posterity. To live this life to its fullest and not be ashamed to try new things. To work hard for the things we need and want.

All of this is much easier said then done, but if we follow the counsel of the scriptures and the words of the leaders of the church we will see that all of the tools we need are available. Just like the shovel, we must put them to use to see the results. Sometimes the work is back breaking, hard, and exhausting. The dirt is like clay and it seems like you'll never get the job done. But, God does look out the window and see you need a glass of water and he will give it to you. And when you're done, the pay off is always greater than the work put in. Just look at Lexi. She has so much potential, life, exuberance. She came in struggling and has proven to be an awesome little person. Frustrating, exhausting, back breaking, and every other thing that parenthood has proven to be, I have an absolute testimony of the joy she brings. It is far greater than any of the work I've done so far. I hope that I will be able to provide her with all she needs to become the person she hopes for in this life.

Fun with Nanna

Nanna Case has been in town for the last week to visit. Yesterday, we went to the zoo. Allen met us there for lunch. Lexi had a really good time. Nanna and I had ice cream cones so we had a good time, too...

Lexi with the "ooo - oooo's"

Lexi and Allen at the Polar Bears

This morning, we went to the local park. We hadn't ever been before. Lexi loved the slide. We put her in the swing, but she started to look a little pale and then turned a little green so we took her out. The dogs went with us and had a great time, too.

Is it just me, or is Mia the coolest looking dog ever?

Personal Progress?

So, the church has this program for the Young Women akin to scouting for the Young Men. It's called Personal Progress. There are 7 values: faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, choice and accountability, good works and integrity. Within each value are 3 mandatory "experiences", 3 elective "experiences" and one 10 hour project to be completed. When you have done all of those things for all 7 values, you receive the Young Women's Personal Progress Medallion.

The goal of the program is to help our girls prepare for their roles as wives, mothers and grown women. More importantly, the program helps them to draw closer to Christ and recognize their worth as daughters of our Heavenly Father. They have 6 years to complete the program. Once you have turned 18 and left the Young Women's program, you cannot earn the medallion. UNLESS, you are a Young Women's leader for at least a year. After your year's time and while in that call, you may earn your medallion. The requirements are about 1/2 of what the girls must do. I've been encouraging the current presidency, myself included, to earn their medallions. Currently, I'm about 1/2 way there.

Here is an example of one of the experiences:
Faith Experience #6
Increase your understanding of the plan of salvation. Resources for study include 2 Nephi 9:1-28, 11:4-7, Moses 4:1-4, Revelation 12:7-9, Doctrine and Covenants 76:50-113, 93:33-34, Abraham 3:24-27, and 1 Corinthians 15:22. Draw or obtain a picture that depicts the plan of salvation, including the premortal existence, birth, mortal life, death, judgment, and life after judgment. Using the picture, explain the plan of salvation to your class, your family or a friend. Discuss how knowledge of the plan affects your actions.

Allen and I were teaching a family for about a year and one night I chose to use this for the lesson. It was pretty easy to do and was a great experience for everyone involved.

Here's an example of a 10 hour project:
Individual Worth
Carry out a project to improve the living situation of someone in need.

Marti was at a cross roads and we both determined that living with us would probably be a good thing for her. She was with us for about 4-5 months. During that time, we tried to keep a home where the Spirit was welcome, love her, encourage her, and of course, have a lot of fun just being together again. Again, not too difficult and very rewarding.

My biggest hold up on completing my personal progress is the journaling. Many of the experiences require a person to read scripture, practice their new behavior/goal for 2 weeks and then journal. I do not like to journal and I rarely remember to do so. However, blogging has been something I really like. So, I'm going to use this blog as my journal for PP. For those of you that are in YW and want to join in, come on! For the rest of you, my spiritual, emotional and personal growth will be at your fingertips. Can't hardly wait for the first entry, can you?

(The title of this entry is a link to the LDS website for the official explanation of PP, the purposes, helps, etc.)

Cruisin'

No, that isn't a space ship coming for Lexi. It's just our outdated kitchen light and we aren't that close to Roswell anyways.

Nanna Case's present arrived. Lexi loves it! Steering conflicts a bit with her efforts to keep an eye on the bubbles while she makes her way around the house. She smiles the whole time but is quick to say "Uh Oh!" when she runs into stuff. Of course, she doesn't quite grasp how to turn the handlebars so she just keeps on pressing the gas and the wheels run against the wall.

Before and After

Meet Honey. We "rescued" her almost a year ago. You'll see from the photos that she was in a bad way. I went to look at her to use as a lesson horse and was pretty shocked to see her in such condition. I decided I was taking her home whether she made a good lesson horse or not. I took her to vet pretty quick to make sure she didn't have any health problems. Turns out the only thing she needed was some groceries. I put a bale of grass hay in her stall, started her on a cup of senior feed a day and waited. I increased the senior feed by a little bit at a time until she was getting about 5 lbs. a day. She was de-wormed pretty heavily to help aid her weight gain process. It was 2 months before she was even healthy enough to start exercising.

I took the following pictures today. Honey is a happy, healthy 20 year old mare. She doesn't need grain to stay fit and enjoys horse cookies after her work outs. Turns out, this mare has been in the top 10 two times over at the Arabian Youth Nationals. She is fantastic with the kids and smaller adults. She is so well trained and so patient with new riders. She loves to have the attention the kids give to her when they come to ride her. In fact, the young girl riding her today is Maddy. She is going to be feed/leasing Honey. (They live next door.) Maddy has been taking lessons for a year and really wants her own horse. Honey doesn't have a kid of her own right now so I suggested they take her. They pay feed and maintenance costs and Maddy has her own horse to ride. You'll see from the picture of Honey's face that her eye is very different from the one above. She is happy, loved and comfortable.

Update

Allright, at least the jeans with the W next to the size are too big. Whew.