The Apartment

We are officially out of the apartment. Yesterday I went and turned in our keys. After living there for four years and having two kids it was bitter sweet. Linda, the lady who rented us the apartment said that we would probably get our whole deposit back. That would be great, however should we put it toward bills, or toward fixing things around the house...? Bills. Our mail hasn't started to forward so I was thinking of asking the new renters to hold anything that comes in our name. I showed them the apartment, so I kind of know them.

Three Months Old

Kayla is three months old today. The time has flown by!! Wednesday night I put her in the play pen while we moved our bed to the upstairs bedroom. When I laid her down she was horizontal and on her back. When I came back to get her she was vertical and on her stomach - asleep. It must have worn her out getting all the way over. We missed her first roll over, but I'm sure there will be more.

We are still living out of boxes. Many, many boxes. I cannot get motivated to unpack. By the time I get the kids home from work and daycare I am worn out. I'm not sure why this wears me out so easily, but I will lay down with the kids and read, watch tv, or just sit and stare at the wall. Anything but unpack... I think that I need to start running again. Easier said than done.

Jaida has been so sick this week. For two days she completely lost her voice and was whispering. It was actually pretty nice and quiet. When she would breathe she sounded like a motorcycle or something with a big rumbling engine. She has also had a fever, sore throat, stuffy nose, and chest congestion. We feel so bad for her, but boy has she been snottier than usual! Now the coughing has started. It's not just little coughs, they are big and go on forever. When I try to get her to blow her nose she sucks in. The other night she was blowing her nose herself - holding the tissue to her nose and sucking in. I said to her, "Blow the other way." So she twisted her hand around, still holding the tissue to her nose and sucked in again.

I Hate Painting

When we started looking to buy a house I wanted something new so we woudn't have to do any painting or anything. After looking around at the market for a few months and getting desparate to get out of the apartment, we lowered our house standards quite a bit. I shouldn't be complaining, we were able to buy a house! A nice house with a garage and a big backyard. All the rooms are finished, and everything appears to be working nicely. We did have to buy a fridge, and are still looking for a stove.

Everything is so new to me. I've never had to paint by myself, fix doorknobs, texture walls...I've never even had to light a pilot light. Well, I am learning everything the hard way! Yesterday I wanted to start painting the ceiling. My brother-in-law said to use semi-gloss paint and there were two full cans in the laundry room. So I opened one up, stirred it really good and started painting. It wasn't sticking well to the ceiling, and in some places was taking off the texture. I had to push really hard on the roller to get the paint on and it seemed to be taking a lot more paint then I would have thought. I also had to keep stopping to feed Kayla or put on a movie for Jaida. It took me two hours to do the top coat of a small bedroom and the hallway. It looked really crappy, I was tired, and getting discouraged that I still had the whole living room.
We got about home 10:30 pm and Tim called me asking if I had painted a layer of primer. "Primer? Isn't texturing the ceiling basically the primer?" So anyway, that was probably my whole problem. I hate painting. I hate painting. I hate painting. I hate painting.

So Far This Year

What a crazy year I've already had. Last Friday we went and signed the papers for our house and learned that we needed $1,177.00 to close. Those weren't closing costs they were pre-paid taxes and insurance and whatever else they could think of. Anyway, we got that taken care of but still wouldn't be able to move in until Monday. I've had my niece and nephew Thursday night, Friday, and Saturday morning. Maia loves to torture the dogs - which drives Sammo into his psycho fits - and she loves to torture the other kids. You can even see the smirk of satisfaction when one of the kids starts crying. Tara and Eric got back on Saturday. We cleaned the apartment, went and looked at the new house, went and ate lunch, and then they left for SL. A couple of hours later Julie, Emmett and their kids got to my apartment, and then about 2o minutes later Shay and Judy show up. We started packing boxes, and Emmett started cooking. Emmett and Julie stayed the night, they and the kids all sacked out in the living room. ET and Nyah slept in sleeping bags and Jaida slept by Julie and Emmett on the futon. Me, Monty, Jaida, and Kayla got up and were about 30 minutes late to church. Emmett also cooked lunch for us when we got home. We packed a little more and that was about it. Emmett and Julie left, but Judy was staying until Tuesday. Monday we packed a little more and cleaned the bathrooms, blinds, and windows. We also went and looked at fridges and stoves. Monday we didn't get the keys to the house.

Tuesday I got home from work and Monty and I went and got a Uhaul. Nobody wanted to get one - they wanted to use trucks and tarps to cover everything up. Well, I'm glad I was pushy and got my way because it ended up snowing on and off all day. At 3:30pm we got the okay to go into the house. Monty and Tim went and scraped the ceiling. I took the kids over and you couldn't even see the carpet! It was covered with snowy, 70's ceiling crap. I took my camera to take a picture and never took one. Jaida was tired and hungry and screamed her guts out for a good 45 minutes. So I took the kids home and put them to bed.

Sunday Monty gets ordained to an Elder and then about an hour after that he will bless Kayla. So this weekend we'll have even more people at our house. It's okay though, it will be fun.

Kayla's blessing invitation.

Kayla is so cute!! She loves it when you talk or sing to her and gives big smiles all the time! She rarely cries, and sits quietly in her swing or car seat to people watch.

2004 Holidays

I had a fun and crazy Holiday season! Wednesday the 22^nd, I came home from work and Jaida had cut her hair right down the middle of her head. Then our realtor told us that the seller wouldn’t pay for the roof to be fixed. Monty got so mad, he said that if they wouldn’t fix the roof then we were walking – I was totally bummed, but I didn’t want to get stuck paying thousands to fix the roof either. That very next morning Monty woke up with double vision. His right eye was really slow to focus and he was seeing double of everything. We drove up to Richfield that afternoon because his brother, wife and daughter would be there from Oregon. That night we had a big turkey dinner and then Shay and Judy gave all the kids a ping pong table for Christmas. We had a ping pong tournament, I lost and Monty won, even with his bad eye. The next morning Jaida and Nizhoni (Jared and Cyndi’s baby) opened presents. In the afternoon Jared and Cyndi left for Blanding, and Tim and Misty left for Cedar – they had a bunch of Rotweiler puppies to give out before Christmas. Monty, the kids, and I headed over to my parents house. We tried to have the kids act out the Christmas story, but they were tired and didn’t want to cooperate. I don’t even think we read the whole thing – it just got too frustrating! The next morning we all got dressed, ate breakfast, and then went in to open presents. I got everything that I asked for. Waffle iron, tripod, food saver…Everything I asked for was practical stuff, and I am enjoying using all of it! We went to Fielding’s to open even more presents, and then drove back to my parents for dinner – it was so good! I love turkey dinners! Monty’s eye was still bothering him, so he went to an eye doctor that was a friend of the family. Dr. Luekenga told him it could be his blood sugar, and to go and get blood work done on Monday. That night we watched Return of The King. I started getting a sore throat and was feeling achy, so I went to bed.

Sunday. I woke up with a burning fever, but was freezing! I definitely had the flu. On and off all day I would be freezing so I’d take some ibuprofen, then the fever would break and I would sweat! I felt awful, and my throat hurt so bad! I drank tea all day and my mom and sister’s were doing everything they could for me – it was great. My aunt and uncle came down that day, so I was trying to act like I felt okay; it worked for awhile until I had to start piling on the clothes and blankets. They only stayed a few hours and then I went back to bed.

Monday. Monty got up early to get blood work done. I was still sick! I laid around all day and we decided to stay over another night. Natalie, our realtor called us and said that the seller would pay for the roof! Yea! So we were back on. My mom and sister’s again helped out all day making me tea and taking care of Kayla and Jaida. We finally left for home about 7pm.

Tuesday. I went to the doctor and found out I had strep throat. I called everyone to tell them if they start getting a sore throat, just go the doctor. I wanted to clean the house, but still felt awful, so I just laid around some more. Monty’s blood results came back and were normal, so now he had to schedule an MRI. He also looked on the internet for double vision and was coming up with things like, stroke, diabetes, tumor…There was nothing good on the list.

Well, to sum things up. The MRI was normal - thank goodness and we spent New Year's Eve with Dave, Kirsten, Faith, and James Anderson, and spent New Year's Day at Zion. It was all fun and good! We should be closing on our house on January 7th!