Grandma McKay

Monday night my dear Grandma McKay passed away. The girls and I are headed to Boise today. Stephen will come Friday night. She was such a wonderful person, such a great grandma to have. As a dairy farmer's wife, she was fiesty and full of gumption, she had to be. She was such a hard worker and very talented at all the things that keep a farm running. We love and miss Grandma McKay.

Happy to be

Just a quick blog about the kids. I got pictures of them at a time when everyone was playing and having fun. Ada was just happy to be alive that afternoon, she kept running around and giggling. When she used to crawl, she would put her head down and bulldoze across the room. She often ran into things because her head was down. Now that she's walking well, she does the same thing. She puts her head down and "runs" toward her target. When she gets there, she looks up and grins. It's the funniest thing. We have no idea why she does this.
Odessa on the other hand has some problem with cows and milk. She used to wake up most nights, call out and be upset. All it would take was a drink of water and a hug to put her back down, but I wondered what was bothering her. So I would ask her without prompting her with lines like "were you scared? Did you have a bad dream?" She would tell me that she woke up because "cows give milk". She has used this line for months. Sometimes when she's awake and upset, but usually when she's half asleep at night. The other night she was "mad" and very pouty at the dinner table. We asked her why she was mad and she said "because cows don't give milk". She keeps us laughing and always keeps us guessing. My favorite thing is when I make an exclamation like "oh no" or "shoot" and she comes running from wherever she is (often another room) and says "what 'appened? what 'appened??" She's gotta know what is wrong and then sympathize with me- "oh no!". Here is that picture of her missing tooth. The Tooth Fairy is debating on how to stick a bike under her pillow- after all, it was a very big tooth. I saw today on "Arthur" some little girl hypothesized that the Tooth Fairy has busts of everyone and fills in our teeth into our smile as she picks them up. Isn't that brilliant?

Ward Campout

Well, there's no better way to get to know a group of people than to go spend a weekend with them in "primitive" conditions. We went to Ensign Ranch, one of the LDS owned recreational properties. They have all kinds of campgrounds, a lodge and bunk houses, horse back riding, canoing and a big, homemade slip-n-slide thing that can keep kids busy for hours. Although "mountain man Stephen" would hardly consider what we did as "camping", we had fun nonetheless. The girls got to go horse back riding, which was the highlight of the trip, I am sure. We met more people and got to know others a lot better. Odessa joined in on a balloon tag game and her and Stephen ran in the 3-legged race. Note the pretty mountains in the back.

Church yesterday was very nice again, the major new thing in this ward being the Gospel Doctrine class for parents with kids under 18 months. Brilliant idea, don't you think? All of us that would usually be found sitting in the hall are rounded up into a small class where the kids can play on the floor, make noise and eat snacks and steal each other's toys. The parents actually get to read and participate in Gospel discussions. We were talking about it and I realized that this is the first time in about 2 1/2 yrs that I have really gotten to sit through Sunday School class. Wow, how nice is that? Pictures of Odessa's missing tooth to come. And for those of you who don't check it, I just made a new album with all of April and May photos on Picasa. Just click on the photos link on the right.

Back at it

Hey . . . . everybody. Not really sure if there are more than 2 people that check this, but hey- what the heck. We still don't have internet at "home". So this will just be a short blog from the library. I put "home" in quotes because when Odessa says "I want to go home" when we are out and about, I am still not sure she isn't talking about Chicago. I was giving her a bath the Saturday night before our first Sunday going to Church here and I was explaining to her that we were going to a new ward and a new nursery and she would play with new kids and she looked at me and said "Mom, let's just go home". That was a sad moment. We were really rough on the kids for a couple of weeks. We spent long days in the car where they had to take naps slumped over in their car seats, they had to be on their best behavior at every restaraunt we stopped at. In Seattle, we stayed 3 nights in a cramped Extended Stay while we drove around like crazy all day, getting them in and out of the car to look at apartments and feeding them food from the grocery store deli at 8pm (and that was their "decent" meal for the day). I felt pretty wretched about it all. Now we have been living in a nice 2 bed, 2 bath apartment in Queen Anne for over a week and they are starting to settle in. We live just north of downtown and the Space Needle. The best thing was Saturday when we all walked down to the Seattle Center where the Needle is and lots of other buildings and I wasn't stressed the whole time we were there because we hadn't had to take an hr long train ride or fight traffic to get there. I will enjoy that about being close to the city. City excursions will be much easier to handle. We have a nice balcony where we can see the city and Lake Union and the Needle, it's all very beautiful at night. They say the view is better in the Fall when all the leaves fall off the trees that are blocking most of our view : ).
Don't get me started about pushing a double stroller up these hills or the crazy prices at the grocery store. I could go on for pages and no one needs that. I guess it IS nice that I can get a cardiac workout just by going around the block.
Stephen works in Pioneer Square, the historic part of town and so far seems to be enjoying the job. I am looking forward to bi-weekly lunch dates as there is a gal from the ward living behind us that is here for her hubby's internship and is pretty bored. Wants to babysit and what-not, so great!
One traumatic event marks our first week here. Odessa fell off the step stool while brushing her teeth and knocked a front tooth out when she hit the counter. I was at the store, so Stephen didn't have the car to take her to the doctor, he called me and I assumed the ER wouldn't do anything, so I told him to call ask-a-nurse while I hitched it home. Turns out you need to put the tooth immediately back into the gum and yes, they do put baby teeth back in. I never would have thought. By the time we talked to people who knew, it was too late, you really should put it back within 30 min. So now she will be toothless for a good 4 yrs until her big tooth grows back. Baby teeth are much more important as space holders than anything else. So now she has seen a dentist for the first time (what a champ) and she walks up to strangers, pulls up her gum and says "I bwoke my toof". It's hard when your baby hurst herself, and is "marred" by it. Stephen said it felt like an extension of himself had been damaged. The real problem is that the dentist found what might be some damage to the root of the other front tooth. It may need to be treated or even pulled and a spacer put in. That would be a problem. We'll be seeing a pediatric dentist about it the first of July, when Stephen's health insurance kicks in.
Well, we should have internet soon and I will be a bit more regular. Remember, we have a sleeper sofa (that we kept instead of taking a free, newer couch) just so people can come stay with us. And yes, even your own bathroom. Seattle is nice in the Summer, er- so they say. Come see us in the Emerald City! (how's that for a short blog?)

.01% chance obliterated

Well, it's official. We're going. More on our fun weekend later.

Moving

Yes, well some of you already know this, but chances are 99.99% that we are moving to Seattle. In a week and a half. Why the .01% doubt, you ask? Well, this all hinges on a "technicality". We are waiting on a signature from some guy in upper management who has no idea he holds our (very near) future hanging in the balance. Stephen got a call from King County Metro (Seattle's department of transportation) last Monday. They offered him a job as a Transportation Planner II. Which just means he's supposed to know more than a Planner I. The job is in downtown Seattle, so we are going to try and live a little more urban this go-around. Mostly so that Stephen doesn't have to commute 1 hr each day and we can get some of this urban thing out of our systems. ha ha
I am not going to go into detail how much I will miss Chicago and a lot of the people here. Basically, I have like 3 days to move since I will be in Boise this Thurs to Monday. Stephen and Odessa will head up the packing and we'll load when I get back. Stephen graduated Friday, his parents have been here this weekend, we went to a live performance of A Prairie Home Companion in Milwaukee on Saturday, but all this will have to go undocumented for the most part. There just isn't time. Well, in Boise I will have some down time and maybe blogging will keep me from going crazy as I worry about Stephen having to decide what things in my kitchen should be packed and which should be tossed. But if you don't hear from us for a few weeks, now you know why. And if I get back on here in a few days and sheepishly have to report that the .01% chance was the one we got, well- I just won't report that and if I never post again, you'll know why.

10 things I love about Stephen

Cheese, sigh. So my friend "tagged" me to do this and since I, like her, don't want anyone to think I don't love my husband, I will do it. But that doesn't mean I have to pass it on or anything because there was no promise that I would have my greatest wish come true if I tagged 5 more people. And I really do believe in those promises, by the way. (hear the sarcasm drip, drip, drip.)


1. I love that I have to literally boot him out the door some mornings because he just wants to stay five more minutes with the girls. He loves spending time with them so much.
2. I love that he's willing to learn new things, like how to be romantic in the ways I like romance.
3. I love that he is very righteous without being self-righteous and lets me play devil's advocate sometimes just to try and bug him.
4. I love that he's really organized and likes to do jobs really thoroughly and will spontaneously clean or organize something in the house. (this usually offends me, but inwardly I am glad).
5. I love that the girls look like him.
6. I love that he uses bigger words than me and knows more about computers than me (I used to not think this was the case, but it probably has always been that way.)
7. I love that people think he has an accent and he blames it on a slight speech impediment when he was a child (I think it's because he's trilingual).
8. I love that we seem to like almost everything the same! We want to do the same things, we believe in most of the same values. However, he likes to debate emotionally charged topics and once completely turned my opinion around and then back again to the original!
9. (You are going to hate me for saying this) but I love it that he doesn't watch sports or actually any TV. Yes, this makes it hard for me to want to watch any TV, but the perks are definitely better than the fact that we are two CLUELESS pop culture failures. (ps- it's mostly b/c he has no time since being in school).
10. I love that sometimes he has to do things the hard way. I can't believe I am saying that, because I think that trait has been the source of a lot of frustration for me (starting with our 5 1/2 yr friendship when we both knew we could probably be a great couple) but it makes him an individual and that's something I love best about him!