Think, Think, Think...

I'm sitting here typing when I should be falling asleep while reading Pride and Prejudice. I read it every time I am pregnant, I don't know why but it's good timing every 2-2 1/2 years... I love reading it because it's so different than the movies... close to the PBS version than the Kiera Knightly one but I love it, i just get snuggled into my bed and my mind concentrates on something other than what runs through my mind all day and I fall asleep, I have to read to fall asleep or I can't stop thinking. I was watching the new movie "I don't know how she does it" starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Greg Kinear and Pierce Brosnan, it's PG-13 but it is actually really decent, there is only one thing that is said that is not appropriate and it's mentioned twice. Well she is a juggler is what her husband calls her at the end of the movie, any ways the point I am trying to make is in the movie she talks about being a mom and how mom's don't sleep through the night and how she gets up and kisses her kids and than lays back down and makes "The List" in her head of all her up coming tasks and things she wants to get done... well that's me... I think and think and think and think. I can't tell if it's worse now that I am pregnant or not... but I just can't stop my mind is on go all the time. I have to have distractions or it's so bad... I have decided I am a project pile-r I go from one project to the other and have a hard time finishing projects... it's awful... any ways... let me tell you about our family.

Last weekend... our fridge finally needed to be replaced. It's needed it for awhile but excuse after excuse was made. It was leaking water and than it started freezing every thing on the top shelf. The maintenance man came out twice first in October, next in December but here we are still with a broken fridge. So finally my landlord aka upstairs neighbor Nancy the best landlord EVER, decided time for a new fridge. So She said the fridge guy was coming Friday. So I took everything out of our fridge and freezer and put it out front in boxes etc, the guy came, replaced our fridge, took away our broken washer and dryer for free, and left. Friday night, milk wasn't very cold, but hey we were used to frozen milk so hmmm maybe needed getting used to again. Saturday same story, Sunday getting ready to leave for church, everything in freezer has completely de-thawed and starting to smell, (just my frozen bananas) and we have maxed out the turning up knobs and no change. We go to church come home tell Nancy she says she will call them Monday morning. So I tell Dave oh man, gotta take everything out and put it outside again, i tell him how when I took everything out Friday I put it out front. To go out front I had to go down the hall and walk up stairs... he says... why did you do that, just take the screen off the window and put it out there... So thanks to my wonderful husband we saved ourselves a lot of time and energy and put everything worth saving out the kitchen window until Monday morning when we got a working fridge. Wow... yes a lot of craziness.

Thursday's Dave works and I was exhausted... Wednesday night was New Beginnings and I was in charge. Each of the counselors took a big event for the year and decided better time than any to do it and so I was in charge... it went well, very stressful but everyone loved it. I didn't exactly realize how stressed I had been that day until Thursday morning when i couldn't drag myself out of bed and wore a blanket most the day while catching up with episodes of "Downton Abby" on Netflixs (season 1) and on line PBS (season 2) wow such a good show I am addicted. Well so Dave tells us to go change out Sami's movie since we have a $5 movie pass at Blockbuster for unlimited rentals for kids, so we head over there which is next to Safeway in search of a movie, and for me feel good food. We rented Mickey Mouse clubhouse, and I rented the movie i mentioned... I don't rent movies very often, hardly anything I want to see. So I go back to the bakery at Safeway where all the goodness is... there cooler of slices of cheesecake etc. They had chocolate covered strawberries. 4 for $6.99 and that was using your Safeway card, normally $9.99 i thought well screw that... i went to the produce sections spent $7 on a container of strawberries and a container of dolci chocolate that you melt in the microwave and made our own... it was a success and makes me want a fondue maker... on my wish list someday I will have a small fondue kit... we also brought home some coleslaw, chinesse noodles and sweet and sour chicken. I could only eat some and Dave ate the rest for lunch today... i let him... especially since when I went to go eat it it was hidden and I couldn't find it... wonderful.

As you can tell Daphne loved them... her first strawberry she ate the whole thing her second one she just ate the chocolate off and put the strawberry down... she's no dummy. This girl cracks us up daily. Her sister of course always has something funny or smart alleck to say but Daphne is learning things and when this girl is tired she doesn't whine or cry she is so NAUGHTY... so NAUGHTY... she finds stuff and gets stuff that we don't know how she did it...(anyone know how to get pen off walls and linoleum and metal?) just one thing after the other. Than she takes off her pants and her diaper and runs around laughing. Her biggest thrill is kicking my belly... than she says... hi brother... yeah great relationship there... this girl though... don't know what to do with her, fights naps like you wouldn't believe but is so cute it's hard to be mad at her. I have my hands full, it's fun, it's exciting and it's hard but I love it and I am making tons of memories with my angels... they are both very different but get along decently enough. Constantly learning from each other. Sami is getting smarter by the day and she is going to do great in school once she realizes she can... so dang lazy but that will get better soon... I hope... poor girls built like her mom belly and no butt or hips to hold up her pants... but she grows like a weed and her sister is keeping up... they are going to pass me up someday.... i don't know how Sami is growing that girl would live off candy, juice, milk and mac and cheese if we let her.

Well it's off to bed I go, Dave is off to dreamland already and I am starting to wind down. Tomorrow is a fun day of projecting and dropping stuff off and getting ready for Sunday. Saturdays aren't all that exciting here... Cheney isn't that exciting... want to realize how good you have it in your towns come visit... you'll be so grateful for your home when you go back...

Well a lot of changes coming our way... we gotta find a new place to live and we will move there at the end of march, just to a 3 bedroom to accommodate Ezra, and all our crap. With that you'll notice our blog can't be named David and his Girls anymore so if you can throw me some suggestions for something cute and creative for once Ezra comes that would be great!

Parade!

So Apparently Rodeo Weekend is a HUGE deal in Cheney...

It is a whole weekend affair where every store in town has huge sidewalk sales, and the town is basically taken over by mobs and mobs of people from all over the place. Since we live on the main drag but towards the opposite side of town of all the craziness, it wasn't too bad, but next year I will make sure I have money to spend...

We participated in 2 of the events... a huge book sale by the library, which you know isn't a big deal since the Kennewick library has that, and there cheaper.. but I went. It is crazy though, people were buying box after box and it wasn't that great of stuff... but whatever. It was 25 cents for a paper back and 50 cents for a hard back... even kids books and so it was kinda lame. I ended up getting a cross-stitch book, and some children's books to add to my collection for our family library... so basically everything else i saw I wanted I can... you know check out for free.

Than of course, Saturday morning, we walked down and sat on the sidewalk and watched a parade. it wasn't too bad... but most of the events in it were from out of town... here are some highlights...

We stopped at the grocery store on the walk down to grab some drinks and pringles for the event...

When the parade started Daphne remained seated, and Sami got to get out to collect candy... the candy was crap... and I ate all the good stuff and fed some of it to Daphne to keep her happy.

So here are our Rodeo Princesses there were tons... And Sami kept saying... princess mommy princes...

It is a coyote for the local radio station... which I hardly ever listen to because there music is crap!

And along with about 10 sports cars, there were these old cars... promoting the Cheney Museum tour... of old houses and buildings in the area... I'll have to take it sometime... it might be kind of interesting.

And it wouldn't be Cheney with out the forest fire department and "Smokey the Bear" I sung him my song... still remember it from when I was a kid...

I can't begin to tell you how deaf I was by the end of this parade... they had every fire truck in town for the regular fire department and the forest department basically in the parade and these boys next to me kept getting them to honk there horns... that and the train running through every half hour honking it's horn... 4 times as much as it needs too... love Cheney!

This was cool. It was some bagpipe players... it makes me proud of my heritage... and makes me want to go to Scotland... I recorded there playing but I can't figure out how to play videos so maybe later!

And this was taken at the doctors office.. it's hilarious to me... Sami does this all the time... but she pinches different than I do... her hands are flipped... it cracks me up! She is such a cutie... she has her moments as all kids do, but some days It's like who are you? She is just about completely potty trained wears panties all the time... but she gets lazy still and goes through some days a new pair of panties each time she goes potty... oh I cut her bangs... they look super cute... i will show you later!

Well hope you are having a good summer. Check out my other blog simplysara.blogspot.com to check out what I have been up to!

Adapting!

When we moved to Cheney we knew life would be different but it's been in some ways a huge Adjustment! Here let me show you!

Sami wearing Daves hat... so cute!

2 weeks ago we went to this place called Appliance Recycle. You see the space for a washer and dryer is only big enough for stackable and we can't afford to spend $1,000 so we found a place that sells refurb ones for in the $500 range... so this is where our search took us! Scary huh?

While Dave walked around trying to make since of the Russian guy and what he was trying to inform us

I kept the girls busy!

We were listening to Miley Cyrus... Party in the USA I love that song!

After a week of waiting they delivered this piece of work... it was $425 and they delivered and installed it for $65, coming from Spokane that was well worth it. They delivered it on Tuesday and Wednesday night it was finally working. The Russian guy had to come out and fix it for us... lets just say it was one of the few times that Dave was angered and I was relaxed! But hey it works, and when we move in 2 1/2 years I will probably leave it since we have a normal set that is normal size that my parents are storing up at there cabin for us... it's not worth it to sell because you can't get what it's worth to us! But hey it works, and it's all the space we need right now!

We have stairs... inside our house... that go down and the girls love to play on them...

Sami loves playing with play doh and so when Daphne is asleep we pull it out.

Cheney is an adjustment but there is promise in my future... this is a lilac tree and there are blooms coming... YEAH!

Yep Sami made all those balls by herself... I was proud.

Moving In to 205 Lincoln!

I took these sometime during our last week in Kennewick, I forget because we

went out to eat a lot!

Kitchen area

front room

my bedroom

girls room

March 28, Monday 2011

As most of you know... we moved to Cheney, WA. It’s a good 1 hour 50 min from good old Kennewick. That’s going 70-75mph and not stopping. It’s a quaint little town, where everyone knows everyone and good news is hard to find (least for us)!

These are the pictures I took Saturday after moving. That was a great day... Let me re-cap it for you.

Friday night I loaded my breakables (pictures frames) into the Suzuki and drove it over and parked it at my parents house. Since Dave would be driving the Uhaul and I would be driving the Van, it had to be left behind. We knew we would be back in town Tuesday to turn in our keys, do some cleaning, and so we would grab it than.

Saturday 6 am I got up and got dressed and got ready for the day... the dreaded but exciting moving day. We picked up the Uhaul at 7:30, I dropped the girls off at my moms right after that, and than grabbed cookies, doughnuts, and water for our movers. I headed back to the apartment as Dave was finishing taking the beds apart. I finished up some last minute things, and the men showed up at 9. An hour later, they were done, and the house was empty... We spent a half hour or so grabbing the food from the fridge and than grabbing some other last minute things.

I went and picked up the girls and we were on the road headed to Cheney. It was a fun cat and mouse game I played. I would speed up to 70 and than when I couldn’t see Dave anymore because he got stuck behind a semi or something I would slow down and he would catch up with me. Daphne slept and Sami watched Beauty and the Beast, and I drove and thought about my day... Daphne woke up before we stopped in Ritzville to gas up and eat some chicken nuggets at McD’s. Than we were back on the road. We drove 20 miles or so, took the Tyler/Cheney exit and drove the last 10 miles into Cheney to our house. We stopped got out and than I jumped back in the van and headed to the Real Estate Agency to grab the key and pay our rent. When I got back we went in and I showed it to Dave for the first time.

EQ movers from our new Cheney 2nd Ward showed up, which included our new friend brother Ayling, the bishop and his 3 sons, the EQ president and several others that I missed because I took the girls and escaped to the store. About 45 min later we returned and as I was pulling up I saw this...

I was very disappointed. But in reality there really isn’t room for it... (and I hate it, and it’s about 10 years old) we will be getting another love seat down the road for more seating but for now we have our new couch and so we are happy. I am going to sell the couch and the brand new Sure Fit cover for about $125 bucks.... least get what I paid for the cover out of it... and put that money towards something else to sit on.

It will take me some time especially with my little helpers to get this place in order but for now, we do what we can and try not to go crazy. Now I just gotta find a recycle place to take my cardboard boxes too.

Wish Me Luck in making this place a home for the time Dave attends EWU!

Cheney Here we come...

We are Moving....

As most of you may have heard, Dave took a job transfer to Fairfield Air Force Base in Air Way Heights, just out side of Spokane. He will be a manager of the GNC on the base. This was an opportunity we could not pass up. It gave us a great chance to move to Cheney and get settled in before Dave starts school in September. The base is about 20 min from Cheney. He will be demoted in September when school starts to part time and than maybe find a job closer to home, to make the main focus school.

Dave will graduate at the end of this month and be done with class by March 23. He will than have his 2 year transfer degree and has been accepted into the Computer Science program at Eastern. He will go one to obtain a degree in Computer Science and 3-D Animation, and if any of you know Dave, you know this is the perfect degree for him.

We plan on living in Cheney for the 2 1/2 to 3 years it takes for him to complete his BA in this degree than we will move where ever the job takes us.

We have found a delightful little duplex in Cheney to rent for at least our first year.

205 Lincoln

Cheney, WA 99004

Is our new address, and we will eventually get a phone number and so we will let you know what that ends up being. I will continue to communicate on Face book as normal and of course will be updating our family blog masonthree (@) blogspot.com

We are very excited for this new adventure and for the opportunity to find a school with this degree so close to our family. We hope you are as excited as we are and we appreciate your love and support as we make this transition. We will welcome any and all visitors at our new home, and we will keep you entertained with the sights and sounds of Spokane! We love you all and look forward to our future adventures.

Our new place. We are the bottom, our front door is behind the tree. Our carport is the one my van is parked in. The yard is not fenced in, but it is accessible and our owner lives upstairs, we will see how that goes. I am excited to be living in a house even though I don't get the whole thing, it's still cool to me! What do you think about the color... Shamrock green, I think it stands for good luck! Time will tell! We had more snow in our yard than I saw around town. It must be the shade from the trees, they were everywhere... kinda cool it feels like a forest!

Our Family Exploration!

So as luck would have it Dave's boss asked him to go up to Spokane and train some new employees at the FairField Air Force Base GNC. There manager left and the store needed fast attention. It was a trial to see if Dave wanted to take over the store permanently. We left Thursday morning early and got to the base about 11 pm. We dropped Dave off after getting weekend passes and headed to lunch.

Me and the girls hit up a McDonald's with a play place for about an hour. Than we found our motel Windgate by Windham, near the airport and checked in.

Than we got back in the car and found our way to Cheney. It is a one horse kind of town, but we spent the day in town looking at every apartment that would suit our family. I looked at 3 apartments the first stop, than a 4th, and those were my prior appointments. Than as I was getting extremely frustrated thinking I would have to lower my standards, I passed a sign for a duplex that was being rented. I called the Real Estate Agent and saw it 10-15 min later. It is the same size as our current apartment and fit all of our needs except the fact that it required a stackable washer and dryer not side by side.

We continued to browse through the town, and went to some stores that were recommended. We ate some donuts than decided we were beat and headed back to Air Way Heights. We went in the BX part of Dave's work and discovered that anything but food was not anything we could buy. So it became immediately boring.

Dave got through with work around 6 and we hit up KFC on the way back to the hotel.

Daphne discovering what a biscuit and barbecue sauce tasted like.

Sami, deciding she was done eating, even though you hadn't eaten.

My silly husband sucking the honey out of the packets... shouldn't expect anything less.

We got back to the hotel after stopping for a few necessities like tylenol. For some reason I had the worst headache all day. And it finally went away after taking medicine. I thought it had something to do with the different altitude since Cheney is all woods and colder than Kennewick, but than in the middle of the night when I went to the bathroom I discovered I had been so pre-occupied I didn't realize that I hadn't gone for about 4-5 hours... I was dehydrated.

My body ached from the day and so we got the girls to bed, and I soaked in the nice hot bath tub. Dave's boss messed up on our room and so we had a King bed and nothing else. So we made a bed for Sami on the chair with the ottoman, and had the pop up crib for Daphne. They had a long day of fun.

The next day we took Dave to work after eating some continental belgian waffles, and than headed back to Cheney to get things rolling for the duplex. We decided we could just sell our current Washer and dryer and buy a stackable set in time... besides there was a laundromat down the street and seriously I think I will have time to go, since there is nothing else to do in Cheney. Seriously there isn't even a Redbox there. It's crazy. Our house will be on one side of town and the school is on the other side of town and it takes us 5 min to get to the school from our house... it's a tiny town. But there are convinces of home, everything but a hospital or doctor's office, everyone just goes to Spokane which is 15-20 min away.

After hanging out in Cheney for a bit we came back to relax and watch some cartoons in the hotel.

For some reason she gets the biggest kick out of putting her fingers in my mouth.

Needless to say we had a fun few hours in the hotel. Than we decided before we picked up Dave we would go check out the local Wal-Mart. As we were killing time, I got a call and we were needed back in Cheney to sign the final papers and pay our deposit. I jumped back on the US 2 and got stuck in some major traffic. A Explorer had ran into the back of a ETA Spokane transit and they had to saw off the top of the Explorer to get the couple out. Crazily enough the lady had minor injuries and her husband had none. I would have never thought that would be possible seeing the gutted car. And to top it off I saw people taking pictures on there cell phones of the wreck... Seriously anyone who does that... THAT IS MESSED UP!!!

I called my agent and she told me the quick way back and so I flipped a U and was back in Cheney in 15 min. Signed the papers and was only 15 min late in picking up Dave from work.

We jumped on the road and headed into Spokane to have some fun our last night in town.

We found a mall the North Town Mall and ate some yummy Chinese.

We walked around a bit and checked out some stores, i bought some cute earrings, and than we headed down to the Lower Level to check out the giant arcade area. They had a train ride, and Sami earned herself a trip. They also had a magic motion ride that I went on a roller coaster ride on, it was fun. Than we topped off the night with some ice cream from Baskin Robbins and headed back to the hotel. I think I am going to like Spokane!

In the morning we had some more waffles and than Dave took him self to the base and we just stayed back and got ready to go home. I gave the girls there bath, and they enjoyed it of course, as usual!

Dave picked us up in the lobby at 11:30 and we got loaded and headed to Cheney. I took him and showed him the duplex, and than we circled around passed the school and back to the entrance of town. In 15 min. We ate some lunch at the Safeway deli. I hit up a used book store that was going out of business and we were on our way. We got home around 4 pm. And I packed 7 boxes before relaxing for the night.

It was fun! We got a lot accomplished!

(continued on next post)