Past Week

I had so much going on this past week and yesterday was certainly the peak of it all. Luckily for all my loyal blog readers, I survived and can begin to post again. :) I know you missed me. Let's see, Sunday and Monday were pretty typical. Tuesday was Jason's last final and that's when it became a realization what a great week this was going to be. Jason would be around A LOT more, we got a final approval on our loan and I found out our first mortgage payment for our home wouldn't be due until February (since everything took so darn long). Really, the two biggest stresses in my life the last few months have been not having a husband around at all and the beautiful home I've grown to laugh at. So, having those eliminated and relieved, respectively, I couldn't help but be oh so thankful. You know how sometimes you selfishly and impatiently wonder for so long if your prayers are being heard and then all of a sudden it dawns on you that yes, they are heard? Well, I had one of those comforting moments today. And I enjoyed it. That night I went to Angela's to get Clara's invites for her birthday party. It's no surprise that they turned out darling. Oh Angela, you never cease to amaze me.

Wednesday got a little busy, but mostly because my client had another "urgent" matter. I get so frustrated doing everything I can to stay organized and then because of these firedrills I end up being totally frazzled at the end of the day. This time, I told him his emergencies always seem to land on my busy days. I did what I could and told him I'd finish the rest that night. I made sugar cookies for the Scouts, had to go to the store to get something for dinner, got dinner in the oven, went to Scouts, came home to finish dinner and pretend to clean my kitchen. It looked like a bomb exploded in my front room... and one in my kitchen. I got the kitchen done minus the dishes before Ryan, Kathryn and the twins came over for dinner. You see, we were supposed to get the papers to sign for our house, but they never showed up. Needless to say, who can turn down my cooking? Ha ha, just kidding. We had our HOA meeting at our house and then after Clara went to sleep, I went in my room dreading the amount of work I had. First, I had to organize some papers in my room and clean. I can't think clearly if my surroundings aren't tidy. When I was in school, I couldn't study if my room was messy. Anyway, I worked until about 200am, fell asleep, woke up (thankfully!) at 330am, worked until 630am and then got to sleep until 815am. That was no fun being awake working when Jason's alarm went off to wake up!

Then Thursday hit. Ugh. After getting VERY little sleep, I woke up having the following things on my schedule: KS' payroll, bank to sign and notarize two pounds of papers, Suzanne's to make ginger bread houses (okay, so I didn't HAVE to do this, but I have missed our Thursday get togethers and I was SO excited to make ginger bread houses, so I decided to squeeze it in), pick up a gift at my mom's to mail with my gift to Emily, go to the post office and copy and Fed-Ex the closing docs. The day went pretty smooth. I was told the papers were to be here by 1030, but really, it was Noon. They came at 1100, so that is better than Noon I suppose. We sure had fun: Ryan, Kathryn, Jason and I at the bank signing oh so many papers while trying to keep Clara, Elsa and Lucy happy, keeping the papers in order and making sure all of the specified ones got notarized. Thanks to Ryan and Kathryn for doing this favor for us. Now as soon as the house sells I can take them to T. Cooks. After that I went to Suzanne's for a bit and then to my mom's. I am pretty stubborn and proud, which probably makes things in my life more complicated than they need to be because I rarely ask for help. I did ask my mom if she could watch Clara while I did my other errands. Of course she was thrilled to help me and I decided I want to buy a house as close to her as possible. My goodness it would be convenient! I went and did payroll, copied and Fed-Exed our docs and went to the post office with TWO free hands. It got done so quickly and Clara got a little nap. Once that was done, I felt much relief because all of my "time sensitive" to do's were done. Later that night, we met Beka and Danny and their boys at the Temple to see the lights. Lights are pretty and Arizona is FREEZING cold right now. Danny and Jason were walking ahead of Beka and I, each with a stroller, and one of the sister missionaries told them congratulations on such cute kids. Danny put his arm around Jason and said thanks. Hmmm, should I be concerned? We went to Danny's parent's after and probably shouldn't have. Poor little Clara just coughed her head off the entire time so we left.

And now for today. Of course my little client had another emergency, but I got it taken care of. Clara wouldn't nap and you can tell the poor baby is miserable. We had our Ward party tonight and it was different. Karen came. We were in several groups and we went to different rooms where parts of the Christmas story were told. It was good, but too long, especially with kids. After the dinner, Jason went home with Clara because she was so sick, but it was even too long for an adult. Afterwards we came back to our house to visit. And now I'm sitting here not wanting to go to bed because I don't have a million things to do tomorrow.

My mom got Clara this little rocking horse for her birthday and she loves it. If you pinch the ears, it plays music and Clara starts moving up and down to it. She'll love it even more when she can sit on it without my help.

Fire Sky

Tonight was Jason's work Christmas party. I was grateful, once again, for having my mom live so close. I am so glad I have someone that is very willing to watch Clara and I can trust that everything will be fine. I can just enjoy whatever I'm doing knowing Clara is safe AND happy! The party was at the Fire Sky Spa and Resort in Scottsdale and it was awesome! I absolutely loved this place. I kept taking pictures of everything because even their Christmas decorations were rad. I can't figure out why I was so in love with it, but I was. I will go back, that's for sure! As we were walking around taking pictures, I asked Jason if he wanted to take a picture by this deer head and he said if he takes a picture by any head, it needed to glow, so we found the glowing heads and I got my picture.

It was funny because right when we walked in, it smelled SO much like alcohol and I realized I don't think I've been around that smell since I quit my last job. Don't ask why, but it seemed like I was frequently exposed to the smell in my last "life". We had a delicious dinner (salad, rolls, chicken, ham, beef (cut right off a huge chunk of cow), potatoes, green beans, tortelinni and yummy desserts). I got the chocolate cake and it had like a ganache frosting that was so good. I love free food, especially when it's this good! Seriously, it was good food.

After the dinner they had a Casino Night. It's the third time his company has done this. We had fun playing Black Jack, but didn't win anything with our tickets. Oh well, I didn't mind because the highlight of my evening of gambling was when I had 17 dealt to me at the Black Jack table and I told the dealer I wanted to hit, so he did, and it was a 4. At that point, the sweet old lady (65ish?) next to me said, "You must has a horseshoe up your butt." I about died laughing. Ha!

It was so fun to go on a real (and free!) date with Jason since that part of our life has pretty much been nonexistent as of late. I miss dating, funny how that has slowly disappeared over the last few years... Yeah for grandmas to babysit and employers for throwing fun parties!

At Least I Tried!

Remember how I said Clara likes to keep the nipple in and crawl around with it (and yes, I let her empty the cupboard onto the kitchen floor... that's how they learn!)

Just now I was trying to be a dedicated employee and work and the website I need timed out. It won't let me sign back on. That's awesome, I get the motivation to work and I have a road block. As Jason always says, "Why put off today what you can do tomorrow?" But hey, at least I did try. About as hard as I tried to get Clara to smile in this picture... hmmm, today I apparently had a few failures!I forgot to mention I got my Christmas tree put up (after 3+ hours!) I'm pretty happy with how it looks. It's probably not the exact shape I'd pick out, but for $5 at a garage sale I don't think it could be better. I still need to floof some of the branches, but until I have more spare time, I think it looks great. Now I know why my mom always made us help put up the tree. It's a pain to make the branches look good with no help... or "reverse" help aka CLARA. :)Clara isn't as fascinated with the lights or the tree as I thought she'd be, just the ornaments, especially the glittery snowflakes. Little does she know I can always tell when she sucks on one because her tiny little mouth has a tiny little glitter border. Look at the innocent reassurance in her eyes, "I won't touch it mom, don't worry."

Some of my favorite ornaments...

In my Christmas box I found a bag of smashed bows. Clara loves them. She will put as many as she can in one hand and tote them everywhere she goes. And I occassionally stick them to her head so they go everywhere she goes without her having to do any work. My favorite Christmas gift from last year!

Today was busy busy. The lender called saying there were a few more things I needed for the loan to finalize, one being signatures. So I dropped everything and drove to ASU and got Jason to sign some papers just before his final, fed Clara at my mom's, went to Ryan and Kathryn's and then went to KS. This afternoon I made fry bread for the Pack Meeting (that I didn't go to). It wasn't until I was in the car on my way to Lily's orchestra concert that I realized I wreaked of frying oil. Of course that's all I smelled the rest of the night! I love Elementary School concerts. During this one, I couldn't help but consider how incredibly patient, understanding and easy going an Elementary School music teacher must be. I could never! After the concert, we enjoyed "Supper with Santa". Nothing beats cold pizza and warm soda. Too bad Santa didn't grace us with his presence until long after everyone was through eating. As we were walking to our cars, James was "flying" Clara all around and she LOVED it. She had this huge grin on her face the whole time. Even when I put her in her seat she was giggling and smiling. I really enjoy watching my little brothers play with her and knowing she is loved by oh so many people. I'm sure she gets sick of Jason and me so it's good to mix things up!Then, I went to a baby shower. I get so excited when I go to showers for first time moms. I just think there is nothing more joyous than a sweet little baby and experiencing that for the first time is such a happy time. Oh the memories. After that I came home and my good friends came to visis. Okay, so maybe it was just ONE friend (Beka) but she is a very good friend, so I think that counts as two. She always knows when I need a boost (the friend and sugar kind); I must start to get really negative on my blog or during phone conversations. It was fun to visit and eat the cookies she brought and I enjoyed chatting far more than I would have enjoyed working!

Coupons & Random Thoughts

As is typically the case when I'm blogging, I should be working. Tonight is no exception. But what's worse, going four days without posting or procrastinating a little work? I think we all know the answer to that! Plus, I have all week long to work! Actually, I had an urgent request, or demand, rather, from a client this afternoon so it threw my entire afternoon off. When things like that happen, I develop an instant bitterness towards work and have a much harder time getting motivated to work. I've actually been productive this week so I guess I feel like I deserve a littel break. I do find it ironic that while I'm cleaning something up, I let Clara make another mess elsewhere so I can finish what I'm doing. Like today, I was doing the dishes and let Clara play in "her" cupboard. It has all her dishes and bottles in it. She loves to get the bottle nipples and bite on them and let them hang out of her mouth while she makes sure to remove every other dish from the cupboard.

Tonight Jason stayed late at school to study for his finals tomorrow. I get so restless home alone so Clara and I went to Wal Mart and then Costco. Grrrr, I totally forgot to use my coupons at Wal Mart for Clara's baby food. That just irks me for days when I do that. I try to tell myself it's only $3, but it still bothers me. And no, it's not because we're poor, it's the regret of not saving every possible penny. Even when we weren't poor, things like this would bother me.

On Sunday, we had Angela take a few pictures of us for my mom's Christmas card. We tried to change the setting because it was getting dark and it made the shutter stay open WAAAAY too long. Angela told me we looked like ghosts and because of Jason's big eyes, he really does. HA! Clara loves lights, don't you just love that little tiny finger?

Before this last General Conference, I was praying to hear a talk that would bring peace into my life regarding our special little home in Salem. I didn't hear one that seemed to pertain very specifically to what I was needing. However, as I was reading the talks from the Ensign, I realized there was a talk that couldn't have been more relevant in my life than this one. One part I especially enjoyed was, "In these latter days, the Lord revealed that 'when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated' (D&C 130:21). The Lord makes generous promises, and He certifies that He will not vary from these promises, for, said He, 'I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise' (D&C 82:10)." The Lord CERTIFIES that He won't vary from his promises and I love the definitiveness in the statement. It's not a maybe, it's a solid promise. Lately that thought is the only thing keeping me from drowning myself in negative "What if?" thoughts. I also love that he concludes discussing the Biblical line, "And God remembered Rachel" and then he says, "And just as God remembered Rachel, God will remember you." Now if only I could always remember this and have more faith...

Saturday is a Special Day

I find it interesting that eventhough I'm not working a "normal" job anymore, I still look forward to and enjoy Saturdays. Jason is normally gone working so it's not even that I get help from him. Perhaps it's just the fact that no one will bother me from work or maybe it's because I know the next day is Sunday and a new week will begin, giving me the chance to do all those things I didn't get done the past week. Yesterday I went to lunch with Angela and some of her friends. I experienced one of her new favorite restaurants and would agree that it has great food. I can't remember the name of my sandwich, but it had proscuitto, tomato, fresh mozarella and fresh basil. The fresh basil was quite delicious.

Then, I came home and worked and started dinner. I have mentioned before, but my emotions are begging me to mention it again: I hate Bank of America. That's who KS banks with and let me just say, I am disturbed at their lack of service. I received a letter in the mail with a new online banking passcode. On my first attempt to log on, it said I had tried too many times to log on so I needed to call to reset my password. After being on hold for 30 minutes, I gave up for the day. But what I found even more unprofessional was the line in the letter that said, "Your passcode will expire if not used within 30 days of the date on the top of this letter." What is wrong with that? Only that there was NO date ANYWHERE on the letter. That could be the most TACKY thing I've ever seen from a professional organization. That, to me, is worse than a mispelled word.

Anyway, Jason had a huge project for school and he was helping some of his friends from school on it. He was going to meet them and I told him if he's helping them, they can come here. So all day and most of the night, the four of them sat in front of their computers working away at the table. Sometimes I miss being in school. Yesterday, I didn't miss it one bit! I got to make dinner for them. That was fun. I love entertaining, but haven't had the chance lately. Also, Karen came to hang out with me and I'm always amazed at how it seems we've been friends forever. We've known each other for about two and a half years but we don't get to hang out that often. I guess it makes a difference when you travel with people and eat three meals a day with them and then work side by side all day. And in Karen's case, we'd work together in our hotel rooms at night too. After dinner tonight, we went to the mall. Since it rained yesterday, our money tree grew, so that was perfect timing because Clara really needs more pants. I found a few pair of pants and a few long sleeved shirts so that was good. Now I just need some warm pajamas. Any suggestions? I need to try Ross because I am just too cheap to pay $10 for one pair of pj's when I wash them after every wear. Or maybe I just need to buy expensive ones and not let her eat her breakfast in them so she can wear them more than once. And then I won't need six or seven pairs. And just because I think she's the cutest little goose ever...

Wishing

Other than wishing our spec home would sell and trying to control my fuming anger, here's what I've been up to lately...

I'm a little behind with work, so I taught Clara how to use my 10-key. Really, this was on the box and she pulled it onto her lap and started smacking the keys. I don't use this often and when I do, it's never on my lap. So what does this mean? Um, she's a genius. Speaking of work, I got a new client and I think it's going to be great. It's just the transition that's been a bit of a problem. Today was their first payroll and I still hadn't talked to the prior accountant yesterday. How are some people okay with not returning phone calls? I don't get it. Anyway, I think I figured it out and now I just have to figure the rest of the Organization out alone!

Also this week Clara has been doing strange things. First, she took two wonderful two hour naps on Monday. Since then, she's been taking 30-40 minute naps and just SCREAMS. Plus, she's waking up super early. I'm about to go crazy. I'm hoping it's a phase, along with her sudden hatred of vegetables. Clara used to eat just about anything I fed her. Wednesday I believe it was, she was spitting it out and I just kept giving her more. She ended up eating some of it, but not without a fight and making some awfully hysterical faces and noises. Just see for yourself...Wednesday night she was still being a stinker so I decided to go on a walk. But don't worry, I bundled her all up since I'm sure it was like 70 degrees outside.

Today was renewing for me. For part of my birthday present, my mom offered to help me 'organize' my house. I'm a perfectionist and part of that means I don't want to do something unless I can do it perfectly. It either needs to be done perfectly or I can't bring myself to do it at all. Obviously, I don't have hours on end to get my house the way I want it, so my mom came to my rescue. We rearranged our front room and cleaned the guest room which she insists I now call my office. I called it the front room and she says, "What did you say?!" Ha ha. Anyway, she's coming back to help with my room and the garage. It's hard because we have SO little storage in our house and what little we do have is being used. Plus, Jason likes to keep everything but doesn't like to help organize it, so we have a bunch of half-full boxes all over the place. My wise mother said to tell him he can keep everything and anything he wants... and we'll just stick it in the attic.

We took a little break to go to "Grandparent's Day" at Lily's and James' school. Kathryn and her girls came too. Since Lily doesn't have any living grandparents, we decided Kathryn or I could be the mom and my mom could be the Grandma. It's been YEARS since I ate cafeteria food. I was a little nervous, but the hamburger really had no flavor so no flavor is better than none!

Tonight I went to Nylene's to make these marshmallow roasters that we're going to have the Scouts make. It was really fun and I think they are going to turn out AWESOME. We'll see what they look though after they cook and are painted. Until then, I need to get back to thinking about working...

Be Thankful

Last night I was giving Clara a bath and she let out some gas. This was nothing unusual. The thought crossed my mind, "What if?" I quickly disregarded it. She hadn't done that since she was like six weeks old. Oh the look that must have swept across my face when I noticed a foreign object appear just moments later. Be thankful I know where to draw the line on what I take pictures of and I'll be thankful for Clorox. :)

Lazy Days

I can't remember the last time I stayed home from church because I was sick, let alone went without showering for a few days and managed to stay in the same pj's for two days straight. Until yesterday, that is. Every night for the last four or so I went to bed thinking, tomorrow it will be better. Unfortunately, my simple hopes were never a reality. Sunday Jason and I slept when Clara slept (well, I did once and Jason did both her naps plus some) and just laid on the floor when she was playing. I also read pretty much all day. Rachel brought me Twilight to finish. I had started when I was in Utah three months ago and hadn't made the effort to get a copy to finish. When I left the story in Utah at chapter five, I was intrigued and was interested a little bit. Once I got a few more chapters in, I couldn't put the book down. Now that I have finished the book, I haven't stopped waiting to read the next. I'm about to go crazy not knowing what happens and decided I quite enjoy fantasy, maybe even childish, love stories. I've also decided I want Jason to be a vampire and haven't stopped begging him to be such. I told him he should read the book so he can know how I want him to act. Maybe I can just relate to the way Bella feels about Edward. Oh, new young love, so sweet.

The good news is I think the worst of my illness has passed because I feel better today. I have lots of work to do again, but our weekly meeting got canceled yesterday, so that was a relief. I had decided I'd go eventhough I didn't feel like it and definetely didn't want to.

Other than being sick, I LOVE this time of year. I love the cold weather, I love hot chocolate and I love the holidays. Everything is just more cheerful: the stores, the music, the people. A few weeks ago I told Jason I was so excited for Christmas and his mature response was, "Why? We don't have any money." Obviously growing up he missed the point of Christmas. The best things about Christmas will be here regardless of our situation. The trees, the lights, the music, the get togethers, the movies, the decorations, the traditions and most important, a celebration of our Savior's birth. I just love the feeling in the air. Yeah for this time of year! Now you see it...

Now you don't! Yum.Clara update for my own personal records: On Thanksgiving Clara would only crawl the real way in the grass at my mom's. Now, sometimes she will, but more often than not, she's back to slithering. Also, her top tooth to the left of her left middle is totally in. I noticed I think on Friday or Saturday that it had barely broke the skin and now it looks almost as big as her giant front teeth. The other side broke through just a few days ago too and is coming in rather quickly. Six teeth, 11 months and cute as can be. I just can't get enough of my baby. Sad, sick and oh so sweet.

For whatever reason, Clara LOVES Jason's hat. When he gets home, he'll take it off and give it to her and she gets so excited. I tried to fix her red eyes in this picture and it made her right eye look psycho, but I'm too lazy to move the picture to my computer and use the program I have. :)

I don't normally put shoes on Clara, but since it's cold, I've decided I better stop. My friend bought these cute little shoes for Clara months before she was born and they finally fit. Clara just couldn't figure out what was on her feet and was devising a plan on how to get them off.

Family Fun

After we got home Thanksgiving night, sick and exhausted neither our fun nor our sickness came to an end. Friday, I went shopping for a few things and got most of my Christmas shopping done (it's amazing how quickly you can accomplish such a feat when you have very limited funds :)). Then, Clara and I just pretty much laid around all day and all night. When Jason got home from work, he laid around with us. We were all coughing, had fevers and felt miserable. Saturday seemed to be a little better, or maybe I was in denial that sickness could last so long. Jason worked in the morning and then met me at my mom's to watch Clara while I got to go to the Temple with my family. Casey Anne loves the little babies, so Clara was off on a wagon ride before I even left.

Since it's quite rare to all be together, I didn't miss a chance to take some pictures. As always, Clint and Ryan were very enthusiastic about my happy snapper finger.
Of the "grown-ups" we're just missing Emily. Hopefully someday we can all be together. Note: it is apparently a Melzer trait, one I didn't inherit, to close your eyes in 95% of pictures. However, I couldn't help but notice that in almost every picture I took out in the bright sun, the typical eye closers had their eyes open perfectly fun.
After that, the married kids went to dinner. My mom and dad stayed with Rachel's kids. I feel bad because it seems like my mom always ends up babysitting. I know she loves her grandkids, but I think she'd also like to go out with us one of these times. It is always fun being with my family. Because really, do any of you have brother-in-laws that would draw something so randomly well as this? Oh, and notice the bread he (Clint) drew and being the nice Uncle he is, offered some to Clara.
I had our server take a picture of all of us. If only Rachel's eyes were opened, but apparently the server was too enthralled with her smile to notice. After he took the picture, he looks at her and said, "Great smile" with a little grin. He was nice, but did a few strange things. Like when Clara started getting fussy, he said, "You're my last table, so I will hold your baby if you want. I love kids." I used the best excuse that I could muster up that she was afraid of strangers and he said, "Well, she can watch Sesame Street on my phone." I thanked him and tried to sort through how to take his offer. That type of thing is borderline super nice person/psycho freak. After dinner, we were going to have a girl's night out. We were going to get dessert and watch Hair Spray in the theater. We ended up going to Golden Spoon with all but one of the kids (Don, Jason and Micah decided to go have a guys outing... so off went the babysitters) and then watched Hairspray at Ryan and Kathryn's. Jason did get back before we started the movie so he took Clara and put her to sleep and Don took Lucas. This is Emma. She's just like a littl ray of sunshine spritzing around.

Oh and little Lucas. He's so little and just so cute. He is just a tiny bit taller than Clara but walks (he's four months older). I love how his itty bitty pants are still too big for him.Of course my night wouldn't be complete without attempting a cousins picture. Emily's kids are missing, so hopefully next time we're all together we can get one with all the kids. Okay, now how I felt about the movie. It was totally cheesey, but it made me laugh. I was a little surprised at the number of sexual innuendos and thought it'd be a little cleaner than what it was. I'm sure I'd watch it again and I'd probably laugh because I'd catch even more of the subtle lines in the songs. I can't imagine Jason even enjoying five minutes of it with me, so it was a good thing I watched it with the girls.

Huh?

Sometimes when I hear the things kids say I think how much I look forward to having my own talking children to make me laugh. And then I have conversations like the following with Jason that make me realize I already have a speaking age household member that says off the wall things...

Anna: What do you want for Christmas?
Jason: Nothing.
Anna: Tell me.
Jason: I know, I will take what you'd spend on me and buy you that camera that's $150.
Anna: Um, sorry, we can spend like $20 on each other.
Jason: What? You can't even buy the big box of tampons with that!