Five on Friday

Clara had a rough morning and I thought I was going to have to put five times she hurt herself instead of five things that make her happy, but since she only fell and hit her head on the dishwasher, fell out of the pantry, dropped a glass lit on her foot and smashed her fingers in the cupboards I have rubberbanded together, she only made it to four. Luckily, she hasn't gotten hurt since then. (At this point, I stopped writing and am finishing the rest of this today, Saturday)

Clara's five happy thoughts:

1. Bubbles. Whenever I am doing dishes and she sees the bubbles she signs "please" so I will give her some to play with.

2. Balls

3. Shoes (she LOVES to play with her shoes). Sorry for the snot face, she's been a little snotty this week.

4. Getting on her bike all by herself... often she gets her leg stuck and most of the time she gets on it sitting backwards (she's not into taking pictures, if you haven't noticed) Apparently that's not the only thing she attempts to get on backwards.

5. Trying to bit her foam letters out of the bag in the tub. At first I couldn't figure out what she was doing, she was just shoving her face in the bag.

Anna's five happy thoughts:

1. Goose's trail in the sand from crawling2. Having a garage door opener, especially in the rain
3. The slobber that was on the window after Clara got to look outside and was really hyper4. PTO as in paid time off... I've been dreaming much lately about when Jason graduates and not only will he be able to hang out with us on Saturdays, but he'll be able to take days off and get paid for it... a luxury he doesn't have right now while he's part-time.

5. Clara's little belly sticks out SO far after she eats. She looks like she has this little mini pregnant belly. This picture doesn't do it justice but Jason and I just crack up at it all the time.

Of All the Fish in the Sea...

I'd pick Jason! Yes, we played with goldfish in our mouths (while we were dating) and even more immature, we took pictures of it. Good thing love is blind!! :)My sweet little Valentines last year.Sometimes, I wonder how my life would be different had I not married Jason. It's easier to let my mind wander down this path when things are not-so-great, yet not once have I come to the conclusion that I'd be any happier. Oh sure, some of the problems could be eliminated, but the good things are too plentiful. Our life is full of talking, joking, laughing, eating, playing, learning and smiling. And those combined create a life full of love. I love you Jason and Clara. "How sweet it is to be loved by you!"

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you too!

P.S. Along with LOVING Jason and Clara, I love Paint too and tonight I realized why Lily and James use it to make cards for everyone's birthdays every year. :)

I've Been Such a Good Girl

Last weekend as I dreaded, again, having to work Saturday night, I decided to develop a plan. I set a certain number of hours I wanted to work each day so that I didn't have to work on Saturday. At the end of day two, I am happy to report I have stayed on track and it feels good. When I'm working, I'm focused and then when I'm not working, I am enjoying myself and not feeling guilty with thoughts that I should be working. This has also resulted in me feeling like I work less, eventhough I'm working more because my non-working time is not consumed with work thoughts. Since I've been such a good girl, I get to blog, it's my reward. And now you know why I talk so much... I have thoughts such as these flooding my mind non-stop every day.

Saturday night I made pizza and had our neighbors over. I used to laugh at a certain someone (you know who you are) for always commenting on the absolute beauty of fruit and vegetables, until I started taking the time to notice them myself. I like to cook anyway, but if I can make something look pretty, it makes it that much more worth my time.Yesterday I had a meeting for work and decided to get my emissions tested "on the way". Online it said the wait time was 6 minutes. Thinking I was being oh so prepared and responsible, I allowed for about 30 minutes just in case. I'm not sure who I was fooling, but it took about 45 minutes. Once you get in and take a ticket, there's no escaping. Really, you're stuck. So I was late to my meeting, but I passed and that's what's important! Afterwards Clara and I went to my mom's to see the trucks lining their street. They are filming a movie in their neighborhood and every inch of their curb is occupied by a semi, truck or trailer. I have pictures, but they are at my mom's house. I also have another funny picture, but you'll just have to wait and see it when I get it from my mom. Oh, the suspense, I know it's driving you crazy.


Before our meeting, Clara was longingly gazing into the backyard wondering when daddy is going to plant her grass so she can play outside. She can't wait.
Note the shoes in the picture? Well, they are from Auntie Rachel. In fact, of Clara's shoes, I've purchased two pairs (one from a second hand store and the other for $5 at Target). All her others have been give to her. This is why I haven't found the secrets to discount infant shoe shopping yet; I haven't had to!

Imagine That

I have been looking for brown dressy shoes for Clara to wear with her brown dresses. I have found some cute shoes but none that I thought were worth $30 since I'm sure she won't be wearing them for long. And then I found the most darling pair... I might even pay $30 for them. Oh, except they were $89.95. Imagine that, my favorite pair are more than I'd pay for MY shoes. And I thought $10 at Target was bad... Is there a secret store hiding all the inexpensive but cute shoes? If you know where it is, let me know!! :)

Six on Saturday

As my punishment for not declaring my five on Friday, it has defaulted to six on Saturday... I have been pleasantly busy this last week, meaning busy, but not so busy I'm exhausted. I took it easy on work and it was certainly a much desirable way to go. Not realistic, but desirable. Thursday I made some bows for Suzanne's shower that was later that night. The shower was fun and Clara loved all the soda Grandma Melzer gave her ("Anna, I'm sorry, but she just wants this really bad" definitely a Grandma comment) and the treats she begged from everyone else. Friday night was Ward Temple Night and I really wanted to go. My mom couldn't babysit the whole time and Angela wasn't going to get home from work early enough, so we dropped Clara off at my mom's and Angela picked her up on her way home from work. Oh how grateful I am for people who'll sacrafice Friday nights for the poor. Then, Jason's parents stayed with us last night and we were up until about one visiting with them. I don't think they've stayed with us since before Clara was born and if they don't, we never get to visit much with them.

Without further procrastination... mine and Clara's six happy/funny things for the week:

1. The 10 cent Box Tops coupon on my $35 box of diapers. When I first saw it, I assumed it'd be more since it wasn't a $1 tube of biscuits, but no, 10 cents it was.

2. Jason sitting and watching YouTube videos with his parents on the loveseat. Funny that Jason's parents had all these videos they wanted to show him and funny that they squished on the couch together. How sweet. Okay, I also took a picture of Jason's dad in his "sleeping gear" but I don't think he wanted me to put it on my blog. That's really what number two was... it was funny. He has sleep apnea and has to wear this mask thing that has a tube forcing air into his mouth. It looks like an elephant mask to me. I don't know if I could ever get used to that thing!
3. Jason's dad coming to fix our wall... A few months ago I was in our room and from the bathroom Jason says, "Oh, I forgot to tell you..." He had accidentally ripped the towel rack completely off the wall, so there was a big hole in the sheetrock. Luckily, his dad is in construction and kindly fixed it for us this morning.
4. Microwave S'mores. Oh my... why didn't I think of this sooner? Earlier this week I was needing a treat and noticed marshmallows, chocolate chips and graham crackers all within the same vicinity. I tried to get Jason to cook the marshmallows on the stove with me, but he would have none of that childishness. So I put some marshmallows on a graham cracker and cooked it for about 10 seconds and then 10 more (next time, I just did 17 seconds all at once). Then I pressed chocolate chips into the marshmallows and cooked for another 10 seconds. YUMMY!! It make the graham cracker a little softer so it didn't crack all over the place when you bit into it. I've eaten at least a dozen of these this past week and will surely eat a dozen more in the next week. So good!
5. Jason putting on Clara's tights... no further explanation needed. 6. Goose. Before the shower on Thursday, I tried to get some pictures of her because I haven't taken "professional" pictures (courtesy of Ryan since Penny's was a joke) of her for her year mark yet. She's had a scratch on her chin so I was waiting, but I'm afraid if I keep waiting, it will never happen. Plus, her little pigtails don't make it through the car ride so I have to take pictures of them to remind myself that at some point, they do exist. Anyway, we had lots of fun and she would try to crawl away if I sat her down and if I stood her up, she'd try to walk away. It definitely is a two person job to get a picture, but I think some of them really captured her sweet face and her energetic personality.

Speaking of goose...

1. Raw zuchinni. Don't ask.

2. Sunglasses and beads.

3. Corners & beads. She will go stand in the corner, use the wall to stand up, then very slowly turn around and look around for praise for "standing" all by herself. One morning Jason went to get her out of her bed and she was standing in the corner of her bed.

4. Pantry and beads.5. Discovering she doesn't have to put the money in the piggy bank to make noise, she can just press the button inside of it.6. Having TWO phones. She especially loves my work phone because of the case that allows for ease in opening and shutting over and over and OVER.Notice a trend? Clara rediscovered her beads from the 4th of July parade and is in love. It is so funny to watch her try and put them on because often she'll simply lay them around her neck and not actually over her head. A few other funny things Clara does... she crawls into rooms and shuts the door behind her then cries because she can't get out. The other day she was playing with the TV remote and got static and it scared her so she started crying and crawling towards me in desperation. Oh, and I certainly can't get over how funny it is when she puts her head down to try and crawl faster. I think I got this on video, but I'm not positive. Whenever she gets a chance, she will lift up my shirt to tickle my stomach and side. She also tickles my feet and thinks it's hilarious. For the last three days, she's been so completely clingy and WHINEY and throwing fits over everything. I'm really hoping it's her second molar that I just noticed two nights ago (her first broke through about 8-10 days ago) because man she's fiesty!

Oh, this morning we celebrated Nylene's birthday at IHOP (our old Primary Presidency still gets together for each other's birthdays). They told me McCain is for same-sex marriage. I give up on all the candidates and that's all there is to it. We're moving to another country, anyone want to come? If everything I love about America is going downhill, why not at least enjoy some phenomenal history and breathtaking architecture?

What Now?

WARNING: Opinion overload... Read no further if you don't want to know too many details regarding my political views. Many of my leisurely thoughts during the last week involve politics and who I'm going to vote for. I don't feel like there are any good options at this point, but I can't not vote. My friend said her sister is going to write in Mitt Romney on her ballot, which would essentially be a wasted vote so I don't think I'd be okay with that either. I feel obligated to really get to know what our presidential candidates represent and for whatever reason, maybe since I've gained some wisdom in my old age, I just feel like this is really important.

First, I think it's important to identify what issues are most important to me. Perhaps the most important is probably abortion issues. To give the courts the power to destroy the sanctity of life literally makes my heart ache. I can tolerate the laws that protect women with health issues, young girls that are raped (especially those that involve incest), etc. But to choose your actions and then to selfishly give no thought to the life you've created is not okay. You made a choice already, and that was the decision you made when you got pregnant. Now choose to accept the responsibility. There are so many people that wait years to adopt a healthy baby that would be overcome with joy at the opportunity. Just because you make a poor decision doesn't mean you have to keep the baby, but for heaven's sake, don't kill it! Okay, I could write plenty more on that one, but moving on...

Marriage is probably next. I firmly believe, just as it says in The Procamation that "marriage between a man and woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of his children." I think many problems in our society can be associated with the deterioration of the family unit. Children need, whenever possible, a mother AND a father in their home. There are different things dads have to offer to their children than moms. Do I hate gay people? No. They are struggling with trials that I am not so I have no right to judge their decisions just as I'd hope they wouldn't judge me for mine (and I'm not talking about my decision to have a heterosexual marriage). However, I don't believe they should have the right to adopt children and I don't think they should have the right to get "married" for more reasons than I have time to discuss.

The next three are all kind of equally important to me and they certainly don't come near the two issues above. They are: the economy, immigration and the War. The economy is obviously suffering, but raising taxes isn't going to help anyone out. I guess when I say the economy, I really mean taxes. The current taxation system is not ideal (but it sure is a nice way to always make sure accountants stay busy!:)); however, I don't think some of the proposed taxation approaches are the answer. In fact, I don't know that there is an easy way to fix this nor am I smart enough to come up with clever solution for our struggling economy.

Next, immigration. I'm all for immigration. I love diversity and I have met immigrants from many different countries that have so much to offer. Many of the immigrants have brilliant minds, hard working hands or even just a good heart. What I don't love is illegal immigration. I do not think criminals should be allowed to have permanent residence in our Country. I don't think anyone that is here illegally should magically be granted residency. However, I do think we need to revise the process for obtaining legal residency and also the options the immigrants have.

Finally, the war. Does anyone like war? Probably not. Sometimes it is necessary, sometimes it is inevitable. What I would like to see is a better understanding of why and what are the goals. Maybe this is already known and I need to educate myself a little more, but I don't think I'm the only one that wonders these things. Also, don't just say, send more troops or bring them home... have a realistic plan.

Yes, there are other things, like health care, but I feel like it's always going to be a "problem" in some way or another, so why waste time worrying about how to fix it?

Now, if we look at our candidates: Clinton, Obama and McCain, where do they stand with these issues?

Clinton: She pretty much couldn't get more left on abortion issues. I knew she was evil. She voted for legalizing partial-birth abortion and that alone is enough to make me sick. Can someone please tell me why so many people vote for her? Is it just because she's a woman? On marriage, she's against marriage between a man and woman. On the others, she just flops around and I don't believe her so I'm not spending anymore time researching her votes.

Obama: Honestly, he hasn't voted on enough important abortion issues because he hasn't been around long enough. However, the ones he has voted on make me pretty sure he's not completely far left when it comes to this, but definitely further left than right. He voted against the Marriage Amendment that would've added marriage is between a man and a woman in the Constitution. For the economy, based on what I read, Obama is not too scarily left. He wants change like everyone else and would probably be in favor of increased taxes, but I don't know that it'd be anything drastic. For immigration, he has votes that seem to contradict one another, so I am not clear on his stance for this. The war... he wants to bring troops home and limit deployment but doesn't seem to have a plan that works (does anyone?).

McCain: Completely against partial-birth abortion, pretty conservative on abortion period. He's against same-gender marriage. I don't know that he has a great book of experience to make sound tax/economic decisions, but if he hired a good person to do that job (don't know what the title is) I would be okay with that. He seemed to stray off the conservative path when it comes to immigration, but Jason tells me he said it was a mistake. Based on his voting record, he supports the War and being a War veteran, I actually value his opinions on the matter a great deal. He has a very strong military background which I think would be helpful in making good decisions regarding such.

I encourage all of you to do the same thing to determine who you should vote for. Don't just vote for someone because of their party affiliation. And tell me what you think. I foudn the voting records at Project Vote Smart. Am I way off base or do you think there is justification to my concern? In the mean time, God bless America!!

Dirty Politics & My Beebee

I didn't know during the Primaries you could only vote for the candidates of the party you're registered as. I told Nylene and Chris (they were at the polls at the same time) I was disapointed that I couldn't vote for Hillary. Seriously, I have a love/hate relationship with politics. I love to try to get more informed on political things but when I do, I realize I hate what goes on. I heard today on the radio that in WV, McCain's supporters were asked to vote for Huckabee so he'd get the WV win and not Romney. The guy on the radio referred to it as being "high schoolish" and I think it is. I'm sure some people think it's strategy, but I don't like it. It's no surprise everyone thinks politics in America are corrupt. They are! The same thing happened in one of the caucuses when Obama and Edwards supporters voted "undecided" so Clinton wouldn't win. I don't even want any of those candidates to win, but I still think it's pathetic that they stoop that low. The sad part is, I feel like people who'd otherwise avoid that are almost forced into doing it because if they didn't, they wouldn't have a chance. I'm also having anxiety thinking what I'd do if it was McCain vs. Clinton. Those are probably my two least favorite candidates out of the four or five "main" ones.

On a happier note, Clara is hilarious (yes, she's still a baby as far as I'm concerned). She's been walking a little more, but never really to me. She'll walk towards the couch, Jason, Angela, but not me. Last night we were trying to get her to practice and every time Jason would aim her in my direction, she'd get so excited and do a stiff free fall towards me. Then, she does her fake laugh when she walks, so proud of her accomplishments (surely just copying Jason and I when we celebrate her small steps). Last night, she didn't even take a full step, fell down and started celebrating thinking she was just darling, letting out all kinds of noises and laughing. Today I was walking around Michael's and she was doing her fake/grunting laugh as loud as she could. She also smiles and waves at people when they look at her in the store. I can't help but laugh when she does these things and I really wonder what people think I teach her at home. She keeps doing things that just make me laugh, like when I put her in her seat and as I backed up to get in the car, she was waving bye to me. We hear a lot of loud airplanes fly above our house and every time we do, she points to the ceiling/sky (we can thank my mom for that one). Jason taught her how to make a "fish" noise with her finger and lip, which she enjoys doing. She did it in Church and Jason said, "Isn't it neat that what I teach her sticks?" I said it was neat, but wondered why he couldn't try something more useful... So whenever she makes the noise, Jason gets a big proud grin on his face.

Clara "barks" (you'd never know that's what she was doing, but it is), she said hi to a lady that said hi to her in Target (the lady even said, oh wow, she said hi, so i'm not making that up), hums really loud when I'm singing and likes to "read" books. She thinks her eyes, nose, mouth and ears are all located where her eyes are. With her growing knowledge, she's also becoming more prone to throwing fits, especially if she's tired (like every week at Church). It's really fun to have everyone in RS turn around and smile at me when she does it. I don't know if they think she's hurt or if they are caught off guard, but they all like to stare for whatever reason. I think I'm going to petition for the Nursery age to be lowered to 15 months. I think it's a great idea.

Watch out World!

Tonight Trent and Lindz had us over for dinner. For a while, I've been saying Clara could walk but she has no motivation since she can crawl so fast. No matter what I did, she was not interested in walking herself. Well, after dinner we were just watching TV and visiting and I pointed Clara towards Lindz and what-da-ya-know, she took THREE steps!! She walked from the couch I was on to the chair. She wouldn't walk towards me and in fact, for the rest of the night each time we tried to get her to walk, she would instantly get spaghetti legs. But she finally took some REAL steps. We might just need to hire Lindz to come be her encouragement since she won't walk to anyone else.

Five on Friday

This past week I've been wondering: Is "fives" even a word? I don't think so, but either way, Friday Fives was a dumb idea so I've changed it to Five on Friday. AND because I have actually been feeling really guilty for what a negative person I've become, I decided instead of my five happy things and five complaints, I am going to do five things that made ME happy (or laugh in the case of number 3) and five things that make CLARA happy. I don't know if anything makes Jason happy besides Clara and himself, but maybe someday he'll have five happy thoughts in one week. Until then, you just get Clara and me.

For me...

1.) The rain. I love all weather that has to do with rain: pre-rain cloudy gloomy skies, the sound of the rain and the clear, fresh and clean skies after the rain.

2.) Clara trying to crawl through the plastic windows in her tubes.3.) The two old deaf people (I'm pretty sure it was husband and wife) arguing in the store. The man couldn't hear a word the woman was saying and she was getting so mad (they were standing about 18 inches apart) and EVERYONE, workers included, in the store was staring.

4.) Dell. When I bought my first lap top, one of the reasons I bought from Gateway is because I knew I could go to the store to get anything fixed. By the time I was ready for number two, they had closed their stores and Jason decided Dell had a better deal, so we got a Dell. I haven't been happy with it from the time we got it and will more than likely get another Gateway next time. Anyway, I mentioned before, the power cord overheated (the computer is about 7 months old) on Wednesday. My last one lasted five years or so. Anyway, I knew it was under warranty but was annoyed that I'd probably have to send it in and wait for them to either fix it or mail me a new one once they decided it was broken (because it's real difficult to determine a power cord doesn't work). Well, Jason called them yesterday and this morning DHL delivered the new one. Plus, they are paying for the us to ship them the old one. Now that is AWESOME customer service.

5.) The Stake Enrichment we had last night. The guest speaker was Beverly Campell (not an updated profile, but you get the point) who's written a few books. She shared some very strong ideas that really inspired me to be a better person. I might just have to read her books.

Now Clara...
1.) My bra - not sure why, but she loves it (okay, she doesn't love it on her head, but she kept playing with it so I put it on her head).

2.) Colored pencils, a few in each hand and laying in the clean clothes

3.) The bathroom cabinet (don't worry, I will put the prescription stuff away). Look at that little face saying, "I'm enjoying this so what are you going to do about it?"

4.) Her tunnels

5.) Her ball blower toy

Happy Weekend!

1-800-BST-MMVR

The other night when I sarcastically said I wasn't going to work on the W-2's, I was, well, being sarcastic. When I started doing payroll for KS, we switched software, which entailed me having to manually enter data from the first four months of the year into the new software. When I found out we didn't have the licensing to print W-2's or 1099's from the new software, I ordered forms from the IRS. Silly me thought the IRS would send approved forms to print onto from a laser printer. They are actually archaic, carbon copy forms meant for dot matrix printers, type writers or hand writing. At this point, I was running out of time and figured my best option was to input the data from the new software into QB and print from there, since their forms are IRS approved. I attempted to run a helpful report from the current software and it wouldn't pull any of the data I manually entered earlier this year. I found myself entering the information from the current software into QB. Plus, I had to update all addresses since they weren't really kept current in QB before. Anyway, this process should have taken no more than a few hours and I've already invested about eight or nine and I'm still not done with all of the filings.

I got to a good stopping point around 1:30am on Monday after I had updated the information and was ready to review the W-2's I created. Tuesday night I went to Beka's Ward's book club. I think I was "accidentally" invited but chose to be obnoxious and attend anyway. It was fun and as Beka put it, "It's fun to use your brain sometimes." So thank you to the Ward that let me barge in. Afterwards, I went to visit with Beka for a few minutes at her house. My thoughts throughout the night... "If I leave now, I'll be home by ten and have a few good hours to get everything done: payroll, W-2's, etc." ... "If I leave now, I'll get home around ten thirty and I'll still be fine. It's good to visit every now and then." ... "Is it really almost eleven?" ... "Getting home at 1130 won't be so bad; I've stayed up all night working before." ... "I'm an idiot. If I didn't have work, I'm sure I would've slept on Beka's couch!" I think I left around Midnight, which isn't bad unless you have a full load of things to do THAT night. As much as I'd like to blame Beka, I take full responsibility for my actions. I was up until 330am working and got the most important things done.

I woke up wishing I'd done more but glad I did what I had. As my morning went on, my stubborn and proud self realized I just might need some help. I can remember one time that I've asked for help with Clara so I could get work done. I was trying to work while Clara was trying to touch me and get on my lap. Then, my cute little computer became not so cute. The power cord died (I think it overheated, along with my brain) and my computer battery was nearly dead. I quickly saved all my vital things as pdf's and put them on my jump drive. And that is when I called 1-800-BST-MMVR, pronounced "one eight hundred, best mom ever". It's actually the same number as my mom, imagine that. Superwoman didn't even think twice about coming to help me. There's NO WAY I could've got everything done I needed to and definitely not as quickly as I did without my mom. She came over and immediately started cleaning and watched Clara while she ate so I could take a shower. She stayed here while I went to KS (twice... the first time it was as I was getting out of my car I realized I didn't have my jump drive with all of the documents on it) to print everything I didn't at home and cut and distribute their makeshift W-2's (there's only one person I care about what they think about them... :)). Just as I was leaving, Daniel needed a ride from work to DI so I offered to do it. After all, I was in the area and it was the least I could do after how much help I'd received. My mom then insisted she take Clara home with her so I could just go to Scouts after I dropped Daniel off. So that is what we did. At first I was thinking, this is awesome! I want a nanny! Then I realized how much I missed Clara. While it was nice to get things done quicker, I didn't enjoy not being with her. It's like the first hour is kind of nice and then I just start missing her. After Scouts I went and picked her up. My mom tried to tell me she'd bring her home but I didn't want to wait and I think I would've felt so guilty sitting at my house without her. That's a weird concept. I don't think I've ever been at my house without Clara since she was born (15 minute walks don't count).

I'm pretty sure my mom is the coolest ever. Not only did she take Clara, but she cleaned my house so nicely so it was ready for the HOA meeting we had here tonight. Now, I have a headache from lack of sleep and I have anxiety thinking of how behind I am in work and how much harder it's going to be now to get caught up without my computer. But I can't imagine how much worse it'd be if I didn't have help today. Plus, I got the W-2's out an entire day before the deadline!! :) Goodnight.