Shed or not

The current debate at our house is whether to buy a shed and/or what kind to buy. We are paying $64 a month for a storage unit, which seems like a big waste of money but the stuff doesn't all fit in our house. We have several options to fix that. My sweet friend Jackie has offered us her shed and part of her garage. That would be sweet but I would feel pretty guilty. She said I could pay her by taking her out to lunch once a month and that sounds like a fun deal. We have looked at sheds and playhouses. Nan and I would love to buy a playhouse and just use it for storage for a year but Rick thinks it would be too small (the ones we like are not very tall but are plenty big otherwise.) Rick just wants a regular shed. The other option is to move our hot tub in the sun room and use the hot tub room for storage. Again that would be a pretty small room, much smaller than our storage unit but probably the cheapest home option. Rick just totally laughs at me with that one because it would be so much work. Some choices just seem so hard even though they are not big, important decisions. My guess is that we'll do nothing and just keep paying for the storage unit. Sigh......

Nursing

Susanne had an interesting day at work Sunday. She took a couple of minutes to get down to see a doctor after she was paged. Her patient had told the Dr. that the nurse had said she shouldn't walk that night. What she had really said was that they would wait until after the pain meds were working. Well, the doc went to the nurses station and started complaining. When Nan walked up he said, "There you are you little [witch] and then pulled her stethoscope tightly around her neck and pulled her into the doc's charting room. He is a doc known for his bad temper and they have had words before (yes, Nan backtalks to docs....you go girl). This particular one has even been suspended from the hospital before and had to take anger management classes. Nan just looked at him and said, " What the [heck]" He quickly let her loose and went back out to the nurses station so everyone could see that he wasn't being any more ignorant to her. He backed right off and talked very sweetly to her. Nan figures he'll be really nice to her for a while. She opted not to report him because he backed right down. She came home just laughing about it. I am not so sure I would have laughed. This Dr. is one they work with all the time (most of his patients are transplants and that is their floor) so she is used to him.

On a brighter note....It is funny how different babies are. Preston doesn't stand by himself very well, maybe a few seconds is all, but he sure loves to walk. He holds on to your fingers and just starts to go. His favorite thing is walking. If he is crabby that is one thing that will usually cheer him up.

Not Auntie Ann but Mark on Ya-ping's new name

At one time or another, Allie has said all of our names, but some names have changed over time or else mostly forgotten. I walk into a room with an exclamation of, "It's Dave", even though she said my name before Dave's. Allie decided on her own to call my dad "Pop", and so it's been "Allie, Mom, Dave, Baby, Pop", my mom, Ya-ping and me being omitted. All by herself, Allie gave Ya-ping a new name: Gawgo. She loves to look at pictures, and just labeled Ya-ping "Gawgo". When Allie headed to bed, she said, "Bye pop, bye Gawgo". At least she has the "aw" part right.

Two years old

Allie will be two years old tomorrow. My how time flies. We celebrated today because Nan and I knew full well that we couldn't not give her the presents we bought on Wednesday. We bought her a little kitchen and Nan bought her a battery operated fire truck. She currently loves to drive so she enjoys just sitting in it and pretending. I don't know how soon we'll show her that she can really go in it. Dave and Ya=ping gave the most loved gift. They bought her a little doll stroller and she has had to take it everywhere with her today. She is pretty girly just like Anna. When we were at the store looking at the "car" section she only sat in the pink girly ones. Nan refused to get a Barbie car for her. Nan really wanted to get her a yellow Jeep, but everytime we put her in it she climbed right out and into a pink car. When she also liked the fire engine we decided that would do. Gma and Gpa came over for cake and ice cream. Sue and boys were going to come but they had to go car hunting because their old beater car died today. A $1500 repair seemed too much for a $500 car!
We haven't done too much since we got home from Iowa. It has been too hot to move. I think it has been 103 for the last several days. Todd and Deanna left just in time. I do covet central air.

Home again

Mark and I had a great trip to Iowa. Tammy has a beautiful home. It is big and airy and has two of the things I covet .... a main floor laundry and family room. The guest suite is great. We kept our mess mostly contained in there and had our own bathroom. I would recommend you all try to go visit.
The best part of the stay, though, was the kids. Adam is so grown up that you forget he is only 6. He loved playing with Mark, Quin and Peter almost as much as they loved playing with him. (In case you didn't know Sue, Peter and Quin came with us). Anna and I were great friends. She would let me snuggle her and talk to her before bedtime. She sang a song for us that named all of the original twelve apostles. Lizzy is amazing. She is a chatterbox and can say and do things way beyond her 2 years. She is probably the one most glad to see us leave. She loved us for a couple of days, but then was ready to get back to her regular schedule. Anna and Lizzy let me hold them much of Sacrament meeting on Sunday and that was really fun. Ben is a very happy and content baby. He loves to vacuum the floor with his belly and eat anything that gets in his way. Note to Tammy: maybe that is the way to get him to eat more fruit and vegetables, just leave then on the floor! I sure wish Iowa were about a days drive closer to Utah.
Our driving was uneventful. All went well and the boys traveled well. We saw a great car on our way home. It was a little sports convertible driven by an "older" gentleman. His wife was the passenger. The license plate ... I BEGGED . We laughed for miles.
It is great being back home. Allie obviously missed Mark the most. She made him spin her around and play ring around the rosie. She went to the eye doctor this morning for her semi-annual check up. Her optic nerve is still small but her eyesight is still normal and the Dr. said he won't be surprised if her sight stayed perfectly normal or at least close to it.
Preston did the most changing while we were gone. He got his fourth tooth, so now he has two up and two down. He had just learned to push himself around with his feet when we left and now he also uses his arms to do the army crawl. He can also pull himself up to stand by a couch and can go from crawling to sitting. That is a lot to learn in just 8 days. He is the happiest baby. He has this huge grin and a deep belly giggle.
My sweet family (esp. Nan) had the house all cleaned for our return. That was nice to come home to.

Iowa

Dear Sarah,
You wish is my command (Tammy helped me think of that great line) Sue, Quin, Pete, Mark and I are here in Iowa. We are having a great time playing with the Finch kids. I got to hold Anna and Lizzie on my lap during sacrament meeting yesterday so I didn't feel so lonely without Allie. We are going to ride a river taxi and see the John Deere Pavillion today or tomorrow. I'll post more when I get home.