Elliot's Wish List

Tonight as I was tucking Elliot in bed she says that she has 5 things that she wants:
(1) Long hair- this has been a frequent topic around our house lately. She desperately wants to have long hair, but is having a hard time understanding that it takes a LONG time to get long hair. Nonetheless, this was Elliot on the way to school Thursday only later to be in tears when the pigtails came out and her head hurt. (2) Everything in Kara's house- she wants to go over to her friends' house nearly everyday
(3) Everything in Brooke and Nina's house- my cousins babysat them tonight and my kids ADORE them
(4) To sell everything that she has that she doesn't play with- poor thing has set up "garage sales" before for the family. Um, yeah. Probably not going to get a whole lot there. I paid for the stuff once, I don't want to pay for it again.
(5) Did I mention long hair? And the high heeled boots belonging to a girl in her class.

Oh, Elliot...I love you.

Rufus

Justin has been desperately wanting a dog for months now. Lucy, my mom's dog went to go live with my uncle in Montana which was a good thing. Lucy simply tolerated the kids and is much happier where she is at, I am sure. And Justin wanted a "man's dog," one that would hop in the truck and go to Lowe's with him or sit out in the garage while he is workin on a project. He spent hours at NOAH, the animal shelter in Stanwood and almost came home with a dog a few times. They are great there and not anxious to pawn the animals to the wrong family. They carefully pick the right animal for the family, especially one with small children.

Rufus is 7 years old, from a family that hit financial ruin and couldn't take care of him anymore. He had been in the shelter for quite awhile now so he ended up being free! He has been throughly checked and rechecked but a couple vets now and is in great condition. He is a lab/german shepard mix and so far the sweetest dog. I have been very reluctant about the whole thing, but have been plesantly suprised. I have not heard him bark at all, he doesn't jump up on people, he has not had an accident in the house, he is gentle around the kids and if they are bothering him, he just walks away. He adores Justin, even cries at the door when he leaves the house and loves to get in the truck and go with him.

The kids love him and I love being able to send the kids outside with the dog to play. It is great!

Home Depot Kids' Workshop

The first Saturday of the month you can take your kids to your local Home Depot and they have a little project to complete for free (Lowes does similar things, but on random Saturdays and you have to sign up for those classes online, still free though). We haven't been since we moved over here and today was just the day to have such an outing. The kids got their orange aprons and everything. They each made a heart shelf for Valentines Day.

As a side story, this is the "hair" that Elliot has been sporting lately:

A week ago we went to the Dollar Store (a great cheap place to take kids- give them a dollar and say they can pick out anything they want) and she picked out what was called "hair extensions." It was a headband with pink and gold hair flowing off of it. She loved it. Wore it to church, wore it to school, me grimacing the whole time as she lovingly strokes the matted mess of hair. Well, yesterday the headband broke. She was sad but turned around and said, "I have another dollar! Can we please go back to the dollar store so I can get another one?" So we took another field trip to the dollar store last night. I thought she may have changed her mind to get lip gloss instead, but alas, the hair extensions won her heart again. She decided to go for the more natural look this time though with blond. Oh, goodness, what am I going to do with this girl! Justin says she looks like a girl version of Joe Dirt. Oiy!

Children's Dental Health Month

February is Children's Dental Health Month and over the years I have done several presentations at schools for kids, teaching about oral health. It is a lot of fun and the kids LOVE it. And now with my own kids it is even more fun. I talked to Elliot's teacher and she was thrilled to have me come talk to the kids. I asked the dentist that bought my dad's practice to donate some toothbrushes to the kids which I was so grateful for.

We talked about brushing and flossing, why that is important, visits to the dentist, fluoride and all that fun stuff. The office also lent me this great book called "The gross, disgusting and totally cool mouth book." It truly lives up to its name and was a big hit with the kids.

Trying to keep up...

I am trying to keep with my resolutions (resolution #1- blog more often). Really I am. I hate blogging without a picture, but if I wait until that is going to happen too much time goes by so here is our pitiful update sans photo.

Life continues here in Arlington. Too much rain makes me very much miss Ephrata although they have had lots of snow and cold that I don't really miss. I am working quite a bit- now 3 days a week and sometimes 4. A little more than I really would like but I am thankful for the plentiful work and the fact that I do enjoy my job. I work in this tiny little office with three other wonderful women (I said I would never work for a woman dentist again, but I had to eat my words here...) and actually look forward to going to work. And I do believe that it makes me appreciate my time at home more. I have to really manage my time well and still don't get everything done that I want to. I get up super early to get a work out in (resolution #2- lose 15 pounds...ya...exercise happening, but stress eating still also happening...bleh) and often stay up too late to get things done after the kids are in bed. It all takes a lot of planning and list writing for myself and for my dear husband to get things done for me during the day. We are praying for the day that Justin has a job again and we can feel like I can possibly cut back a bit. But right now I am just counting my blessings that one of us has steady income.

Justin has been dabbling in quite a few things lately. He enjoys woodworking and has been trying a few projects out with that. He has been working FIERCELY on our taxes and it looks like we may actually get a meager return after all. Going from owing $4000 to getting $300 back is looking mighty fine about now. Since we are "self employed" working for my dad, it kinda bit us big and we had to scrimp and pinch to find deductions. Very time consuming but hopefully worth it in the end. He has decided to take over the checkbook which has been my duty for quite some time now. I am thrilled about this. He has started a blog although it has been a good week or so since there has been a post. He is an incredible writer and I wish that he would pursue that a bit more especially with the more free time that he has currently.

I must give a shout out to our glorious nanny, Ashley. We love Ashley. It makes my going to work as much as I am all the better because she comes to the house to care for the kids. She takes them to the park or the walking trail, to the library or the children's museum. Just yesterday they went all the way to the temple to walk around and take pictures and then out to lunch. At least my kids are making it to the temple more (resolution #3- although I have to give kudos to Justin for going to the stake priesthood session early last Saturday). She is an amazing, beautiful young woman and we are so blessed to have her in our home.

Well, I best be getting to bed. I will go crawl in and grab my Jodi Piccoult novel that I have started (resolution #4). I am not quite sucked in yet, but if it is like her other novels it won't be long. At the same time, it will probably be a page and a half and I will be asleep ;)

I promise, pictures next time!