You indicate which ones you’ve done by colorcode…
The ones I’ve done are in GREEN
The ones I haven’t done but would like to are in BLUE
The ones I will probably never do are in RED.
Helping Hands: Part IV
(Hopefully) Last, but not least, and in honor of my dad’s birthday, the final installment of the Helping Hands series. This entry has taken me the longest to put together mostly because my dad was here for a month. If you know my dad, you know that it wasn’t a month spent relaxing!
I have compiled a condensed version of some of my father’s activities while he was here. There is no stopping my father. When he first arrived I was worried about his shoulder injury, but apparently, he would let nothing stop him! It’s almost embarrassing how little I did while he was here.
I was a little worried about having my dad here for a whole month, but it was great. It really took the stress off of the final weeks of the pregnancy. My dad pretty much ran the house, including teaching the kids how to swat flies! The day after my dad left, Samuel came out looking for his clothes, because for a month my dad laid out the kids’ outfits every morning! he also made sure that the boys were bathed which is something that I don’t take too seriously!
So, here is an idea of what to expect when Bill Frank comes to stay:
2 – vacuum cleaners
1 – mop
1 – ceiling fan
20 – trips to Sonic
100 – Buddy Bucks received
1 – trip across town in 100 degree heat, with two toddlers, to find sheet metal
1 – car detailed in preparation for sale
3 – meals of grilled steak
4 – evenings babysitting so Doug and I could go on dates
1 – citizenship swearing in ceremony attended
1 – shelf installed in master bath
3 – light sabers purchased (plus one for Jason Hunt)
1 – complete day watching three boys so I could deliver my baby in peace!
1 – new iron (plus much, much ironing!)
1 – office chair (apparently doing work while sitting on a kiddie chair isn’t cool!)
1 – alarm clock
5 – people flown in from Seattle
1 – grandma flown in from Halifax
1 – yard tended to for large item trash day, plus a hedge trimmer
– Countless groceries and cans of Fresca
– Hanging of pictures and curtain rods
– Driving Doug to work and therapy almost every day
I am noticing a trend toward cleaning supplies. I’m wondering if dad is trying to tell me something?! Every time I try o finish the list, I come up with something else, so know that this list is incomplete. He took my boys on errands every day, and he sacrificed a month of time with his wife. Thankfully, grandma also got to come out when Christina was here.
I know at the end we were wearing on my dad, but I hope he knows how much we appreciated everything he did for and with us while he was here.
Happy Birthday Dad!
A Recent Timeline
So, this is what we’ve been up to for the past couple of weeks:
April 23: Doug’s parents get home from Mongolia
April 24: Doug’s parents call to let us know they’re home from Mongolia and that they’re speaking in church on Sunday
April 25: Battle of the Flowers holiday in San Antonio; we head to Dallas via the back roads
April 26: A trip to the American Girl Store; nephew’s baseball game; naked burritos at Amy’s; a trip to the quilt asylum
April 27: Sacrament Meeting in Dallas to hear Doug’s parents’ homecoming talk; lunch with the in-laws; a 2 year old with an apparent eye inection; a return drive to San Antonio; finding out my grandmother died; Doug hearing from Mike D. for the first time in forever; finding out Greg went on a date with a girl that doug had gone out with many a year ago (freaked Doug out slightly); arrived home with a two year-old with a fever of 103; bought plane ticket to Halifax
April 28: Took two year old to Doctor and found out eye infection was actually pneumonia; went for our first ever chest x-rays; had visit from wonderful visiting teachers who offered to find me help with my kids while I was in Halifax
April 29: Took 9 month old for his well-check visit, realised I made an error when I purchased my plane ticket and was now returning on Monday instead of Sunday, packed my bag; did all the laundry so that Doug could make it through 6 days with two boys; got some food from Schwan’s so that he wouldn’t have to cook
April 30: Woke the boys up at 4:00 am so that we could drive to Austin to make my 7:00 am flight; flew to Dulles and then Halifax; greeted by my sister and her kids with a wonderful Tim Horton’s doughnut; went back to the Inn; had dinner; went to the first viewing at the funeral home; visited with family; went back to Dad’s and had some chocolate croissants and Fong’s egg rolls (even in the modst of all of his funeral planning, my dad still thought to get me some yummy treats, watched American idol, talked to Doug; found out I had know idea how hard it was to deal with two sick boys
May 1: Breakfast at the Tavern; an afternoon viewing; Swiss Chalet with the family; another viewing; a lecture from my brother and ten year-old nephew on the evils of hard plastic, and the petroleum industry; a nine month old baby throwing up at the funeral home; said good-bye to Brooke on AI;
May 2: My Nan’s funeral, burial at the Camp Hill Cemetary; pizza and donair with all of my siblings at dad’s; horribly bad movie with Christina; Jessica’s sweet sixteen
May 3: A morning breakfast visit with Ellen’s family at their deluxe downtown condo; helped Christina pack up the truck for the big move; took a tour through the old neighbourhood; fish and chips for dinner; packed up Jason’s snacks for the big roadie
May 4: Church; visit with my Grandpa and his lady-friend; yummy steaks for dinner with Dad, Ellen, Christina and her kids; pack to go home
May 5: A trip to downtown Halifax; a couple of souvenirs; lunch at Sweet Basil; back to dad’s to load up the car; go through customs where I realise I forgot to bring my green card; an interview in the US immigration back office; a flight to Chicago with an emergency landing in Detroit; an evening in the Romulus, MI Ramada
May 6: A 6:00 am flight to Chicago; 8:00 am flight to San Antonio where the man across the aisle was none too impressed with my nursing a baby, but equally unimpressed when said baby started crying; arrival in San Antonio; pick up the kids from kidspace; Doug back to work; dad’s spaghetti for dinner; sleep
May 7: Hung out with Henry; made pinatas; again a little bit lazy (maybe this was all yesterday, it’s all a haze)
May 8: Lazed around all day long: dinner at Zio’s
May 9: Swimming with friends; Trip to Costco; primary activity; enjoyed some Nyquil
May 10: Spent the day sick in bed; Doug took the boys out searching for Mother’s day fun; the beginning of more sick boys
May 11: Breakfast in bed; Church with only one boy; more Mothers day goodness; dinner; walk; puking boys x2
May 12: Reading, playing with my new toy; dinner; preparing for Doug’s special day; Dancing with the Stars
May 13: Made a birthday cake; Hanging with Anna and Henry; wrapping presents; trying to clean in preaparation for greg’s arrival; changing birthday plans; paid bills; wrote the blog; gave up on decorating for the birthday dinner bacause it has been postponed until tomorrow…
Perhaps this is a bit long and tedious, but it’s why I haven’t been around lately.
Aah… the resolutions
I’d been mulling over the idea of the resolutions when I went to visit Liz’s site. She seemed to have some very reasonable ideas and they forced me to rethink the viability of my keeping a spotless house. It’s not that I can’t keep a spotless house (well, maybe I can’t; I guess I wouldn’t know unless I tried!).
So, what should my list consist of? How long should it be? Should it just be about me, or should it involve the rest of the family?
Here it goes:
1. More experiences, less stuff.
2. Earlier to bed, earlier to rise.
3. Less clutter.
4. Start writing in my journal again.
5. Figure out Photoshop. This goes directly against resolution #1, because I bought this book that Pam suggested: 
Okay, it’s in print and maybe that will help me stick to the list. Thanks for the inspiration Liz!
The List
I have been trying to get organized a little bit at a time. Even though, in theory, our new house is bigger than our last house, it seems as if there is actually less room to hide the clutter! That me be due to lack of hall closets or lack of a basement, I don’t know. what I do know is that I actually have to go through stuff and find a home for things. On my journey through the piles of stuff I came across a list that I wrote while I was at BYU. This was before I met Doug, but definitely while I was looking for him! My mom suggested that I list exactly what I was looking for. She told me to be very specific. I have to say, that he pretty much has everything on the list (although even I understand that 5,6 and 22 are somewhat exclusive of each other!). So without any further ado, here’s
“The List”:
1. Return Missionary
2. Worthy Priesthood Holder
3. Understands My Sense of Humour (I was still spelling in the Canadian way back then!)
4 . Spiritual
5. Humble (I’m still laughing about this one!)
6. Self Confident
7. Taller Than Me
8. Excellent Sense of Humour (If you ask Doug what he thinks people’s first impression of him is, he says “comedian!”)
9. Witty
10. Loyalty to His Family (I should have thought harder about this on. It has come back to bite me on many an occasion!)
11. Good Looking to Me
12. Snappy Dresser
13. Looks Forward to Fatherhood (no problem here, he raised 8 siblings all by himself)
14. Patient
15. Good Listener
16. Likes to Dance
17. Likes to Travel
18. Forgiving
19. Loves Me
20. Respects Me
21. Supports My Goals
22. Smart ( I should have been more specific here!)
23. Likes Movies
24. Fit
25. Happy
Frankly Entertaining
Bloom
Living the Dream 