Day of Rest?

Ok, so anyone who has kids knows that the whole "Sunday is a day of rest" mantra is junk. It's no different than any other day except you schedule church instead of parties and you eat at home rather than running to the local fast food joint because you're so dang sick of cooking. If you're the chef, you day is definitely full of responsibilities. If you have a calling, you're not off the hook either - teaching, playing piano, attending meetings before and after church, trying to make it down the hallway avoiding eye contact with all you pass hoping no one will say "Siiister Riiiiddddlle" before you can make it out the door. Since that pretty much encompasses everyone actively involved with church, Sunday is really a day of labor, with the Lord in mind.

We do try to be as lazy as possible, but our efforts are usually thwarted by Lexi's energy level. We don't usually do much work (you know, other than planning and staggering morning showers, making breakfast, getting Lexi ready, packing the diaper bag, going in and out of sacrament so many times it counts as a cardio workout, shlepping 3 bags that weigh about 10 lbs. each to, all around, and from church, trying to keep Lexi up for the drive home, getting her down once we get home, getting her back out 1/2 hour later because she has woken up, getting the meat out for dinner, marinading said meat, setting the table, playing with Lexi, cooking dinner, eating dinner while wrangling the ever messy 2 year old, doing dishes, bathing Lexi, and finally, putting her down), but we do tinker a bit and wrap up the easier parts of the big projects we may have tackled earlier in the weekend. For us, that was raking the playground area and laying out the plastic wrap. All in all, it took about 10 minutes of time. Now, we'll spend tomorrow putting together the monstrosity.

Oops...I lied. As I write this, I hear the rototiller going. Guess we'll be farther along than I thought.

Work Day

After letting me sleep in for a bit, Allen went out to work. He got about 8 hours in and got tons done. He dug 24 post holes - each of them 2 feet deep to hold the 4x4's were using to brace the sides of the play area. He leveled the ground, put up string lines to make sure all was square, and then attached a 4x4 every 4 feet on the 2x8x16's we're using as boundaries. We'll be putting down landscape plastic, sand, and then pea gravel. We looked into rubber mats (like at some McDonald's play places), but they want $25 per square - and we would need 120 of them! For rubber shreds, it would be $1200. Pea Gravel? $60. Sorry Lexi, but you'll have to be tough.

Lexi wanted to wear her hat and be like Allen, but started crying the minute I tried to get the shot. Go figure.

Our little helper. She especially likes to pull on the string lines once Allen has them set. Fun!

It's a beautiful morning

I really shouldn't be posting to the blog. I should be stretched out beneath the pines near a running stream while Lexi and Allen play in the water and enjoy nature.

We were close. So close. In fact, we were loading up the trailer and just mere hours from leaving. Lexi was playing with a friend so we could have a few hours to work hard and be ready to leave when she got home. I was wiping out the fridge in the trailer and inconspicuously running the water. You turn on the pump when you want to run the water. Since we were hooked up, I had Allen make sure to keep the water hose attached so we wouldn't use any from the tank. As he hooked us up, I hear spraying, gooshing, a sound like a toilet flushing and feel water at my feet. I look down and the whole trailer is filling with water! I scream for Allen, turn off the pump, turn off the water and run to turn off the hook up to the house. It's too late. The trailer is flooded and it's clear that the pump is blown and probably some of the pipes around it. After some muttering, cussing and laughing, we decide to shut down the camping trip and make some other plans.

Just a little re-cap here with regard to our last few camping trips: we go to Lumsden and nearly die on the road down, it rains, Brent's car catches fire. Next year, Dinky Creek. Brent in hospital, the rest of us barf our guts at camp and then drive home. The next 2 years we (me and Laura) forbid even the mention of camping. A year later we take 4 month old Lexi and get flooded and pack, running in the rain and high tail it home. Then, we buy a trailer. Finally, civilized camping. We head out for Utah only to put a full tank of gasoline in the diesel at 5 a.m. in Moab, spend 5 hours on the side of the road while it gets fixed, three days later we get all of the shocks replaced on the diesel, the next day we get all 4 tires replaced on the trailer - after being on the side of the road for about 3 hours in 102 degree weather - Allen prayed that if he did get run over by the big rigs flying by at 70 mph that he would die, not just be maimed. Now, we've killed the pump and water tank on our big investment - our ticket to family memories, happiness and an attempt at some sanity. Are these signs, or just normal fallout of being alive?

So, we are going to put up Lexi's playground this weekend. It's pouring rain and there is lighting with thunder. Allen continues to work anyway. I Be Streakin' is petrified of water and is our personal barometer. At the mere mention of water, he can be found peeking out of his stall. Really, I'll see him meandering about one minute, notice the weather is getting ugly, look up and he's already in his stall.

Streakin' protecting himself from the evil water

It's actually hailing and there is quite a bit of lightening around our house

Since we have nothing better to do, I'll be posting our progress throughout the weekend. We hope at least someone out there is doing something fun with the extra day off.

Weekend with the Riddles

Grandma and Grandpa Riddle were here for a long weekend. Lexi had a blast on all of our outings. Once she learned how to say, "Papa!" she kept yelling at Robert begging for his attention. Being the great Grandpa he is, he was quick to answer. Allen was in hog heaven as we finally had enough people to play Settlers of Catan. I actually played both nights. I did bow out to a game of Mormon Bridge, though, being the card lover (read: intense sarcasm) I am.

The weather had been thunderstorms and rain, but it cleared up during their visit so we enjoyed lots of outdoor time.

By the Rio Grande

Lexi hanging onto her trusty "handles" at the zoo

Lexi and Allen at the park in Old Town

Hanging out

Not too much out of the ordinary has been going on at our place. Today, we were playing inside (the winds are 40-60 mph and have been for about the last 3 weeks so we've been trapped indoors in the afternoons) and Lexi asked to wear a coat and hat with her new shoes. So, I took some pics of the kid being, well, a total kid.

I've been giving 6 lessons a week for the last month and will for the next month. Lexi is still playing at a friend's house for 3-4 hours on those days. She seems to have a really good time there and is exhausted when she gets home. The last 5 days she's slept 12 hours at night AND taken a 3-4 hour nap! I'm sure this will soon end, but it's been lots of down time for me!

This week, I've had church meetings or committments every night. Girls' camp is 3 weeks away and requiring a lot of time and planning. I'll be really glad when that event is over. Allen has dedicated this weekend to wrapping up the paddocks which means that something will come up and thwart his efforts. After this weekend, it's time to put up the playground. The awful winds should be dying down and I'm sure we'll spend lots of time out there this summer.

Lexi has started saying, "Thank you". I was changing a dirty diaper and she actually said, "Thank you mommy". Allen says when the kid can show thanks for your wiping her behind she should be more than ready to potty train. If only!

Eight Belles v. Big Brown

Big Brown

I watched the Kentucky Derby yesterday. The favorite was Big Brown. He's only had 3 starts(meaning: he's only raced in actual races against other horses 3 times) and had won each race. The Kentucky Derby would be his 4th race. He drew the gate farthest to the outside and no matter how great you are, that can be a death sentence. Consider all of the commotion at the race track, new ground, the adjustment from travel and put that on top of a really young horse with little experience and it's a gamble.

Then, there was Eight Belles. The reason she attracted so much attention was that she was a girl. The only girl in the race. It's been a lotta years since any filly has won the Derby. She was built very slight, and had terrible odds. However, because she was a filly, she had captured some media coverage.

The horses broke clean at the gate and made good time around the track. Halfway through the race, Big Brown was in 17th place. The jockey rode really well, pulled him from the outside and garnered a spot closer to the rail. Big Brown cruised past the other horses and took the win by 5 lengths. He was hardly blowing after the race and was so fresh he tossed his jockey during his cooldown! It was cake for him.

What about Eight Belles? The little filly came in second! Her odds were 20-1 and despite the odds, she gave a great showing. She ran her little guts out. After her remarkable race, Eight Belles was loping her cool out lap when both of her front ankels snapped. She was put down 5 minutes later. No one noticed because all eyes were on the winner. I didn't read about it until the evening news. This little filly, with terrible odds, came back to a strong second only to lose her life.

What does this matter? Horses are put down daily on the track (it's true). This is what I learned as I pondered this event:

There are lots of Big Browns in the world. People who take off from the gate strong, make it seem easy and don't seem any worse for the wear. They conquer the tough times, get dinner on the table, smile through tradegy, serve endlessly and hardly break a sweat. Then, there are the Eight Belles. The underdog or regular guys who work hard, run hard, give all they've got and come in 2nd. What's important in this lesson is to know that we are not measured by how we run against Big Brown. We are measured against what our individual potential is. If we only see who's in front of us, we'll always feel inadequate. Sometimes, it's easy for the Big Brown's to get the limelight, the kudos, but the Lord does not forget the hard working "fillies" who are running their guts out to do what is right.

The Lord only expects us to run as fast as we can. We don't want to chase the winner and end up crippling ourselves. The only reason we should feel as if something is lacking in our efforts is if WE know we can do better. If we can be Big Brown's, we should aspire to that. But, if we're doing all that we can, we should have peace in our hearts about our efforts. Never should what the other guy is doing be our marker for success. Each of us is here for a specific purpose. The only one who can fulfill your measure of creation is you! So even if wonderwoman or the "perfect" husband or family next door seems to be doing all that is right, no one can do what you are here to do on this Earth. No one can make the same differences or the same impact. So, when you're feeling inadequate think of little Eight Belles. She came from behind and made a great showing. She gave all she could. That is all the Lord every asks of us and that is what we should expect from ourselves. Nothing more, nothing less.

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)