New Things

For my Birthday, Bonnie arranged for me to get voice / singing lessons. I had commented to her some time previous that I would like to do so someday. I hear myself sing and, while I'm usually on pitch, I just think... eaighcky. I don't think I sound very good. So, she found a great vocal instructor for me and I had my first lesson on Monday. Yay!

On another note, this Friday will be my last day working at SirsiDynix. I have accepted a new position working as a Software Engineer for the Church! I'm excited. I'll be mostly focused on back-end database design / business-logic type programming which is what I like. I gave myself a week's vacation between jobs, so I'll be starting there on March 14th. Did I mention I'm excited? The only downer is that I will no be commuting 35 - 40 minutes a day up to Riverton, but with the many pro's regarding the new job, I'm thrilled!

"Cotcha" Dates

So when Grammy was here during the big move that was our December, Bonnie bought a little pad of paper. It is one of those little ones with spirals across the top, and it has an orange cover with a ;-) on it (literally). Now this pad of paper is not just your ordinary pad of paper. As Amy or Noel can both tell you, it's a very special pad of paper. It's the "Caught-ya' Book" (often pronounced "Cotcha Book). Whenever Grammy would "catch" Amy doing something good, she would tell her "I Cotcha bein' good!" and would write it down in this special of all special books. We loved it and have continued it since. Well now getting a "Cotcha" is pretty great in its own right, but it doesn't end there. Grammy told us that, if we want, every so many (she recommended 50) Cotchas, Amy earns a "Cotcha Date" where she gets to choose someone to go with to an activity of her choice.

Well Amy's been wracking up the Cotcha's faster than cold legs collect goosebumps. So far she's been on three Cotcha dates (one of them being tonight's) and already has another earned and waiting! This is what she's done thus far:

1) Went with T.H.E. and Melissa to Macey's for ice cream (before we knew about her allergies)
2) Went with me swimming to the Provo Rec Center
3) Went bowling at BYU with me tonight - this one is what the rest of this post is about

Bonnie was hosting our old ward's book club at our house tonight (she's still an active participant and likely will be for some time), so Amy and I left as book club was just getting started. On the way to the BYU bowling alley Amy told me "I want to get some bowling shoes that turn around and talk!", followed by laughter at her own idea. I couldn't help but laugh too - what a fun imagination she has! So we arrived, got some shoes and a lane, and started bowling!

Amy did great, even marking up 2 Spares! I was lucky enough to catch her first one on video (It's a 74+ MB file so it may take a while to download and watch, sorry):

She did awesome. This was her first complete game of bowling. (We went once a couple years ago but got booted early because it was time for league play. It was dumb, but we got free passes out of it, so today's games were free!) Here's her score card:

... and mine too! I bowled my first 200!!!! I was in a bowling class and bowling league at BYU and my high score was 197. I've bowled many, many games since then and never been able to reach the 200 mark. Finally, on a date with my daughter, just havin' fun, I did it! For the record, yes, there were bumpers up... BUT, I only hit them once on frame 8 when I nicked it and it frankly messed up my ball. It may well have been a strike, but I ended up with 8 pins, so I'm not hesitating in the least about counting my game! I'm utterly thrilled. And how fun that it was on a date with my cutie Ames.

  After our game, Amy was not excited about taking her bowling shoes off. She wanted to keep them SO much. I told her that we could ask the people at the desk. They said no (of course) and she was sad about it, still not wanting to take them off. I asked if I could get a printout of the score card, commenting about it being her first game and my first 200. They said "Oh! Do you want a free shirt?" ... Huh? Well, at BYU I guess you get a free shirt for bowling over 200! Cool! I said yes and then asked Amy if she'd trade the shoes for the shirt. She was willing (whew!). So here I am sporting evidence of my long-and-highly-sought 200!

W-0-0-t!

My Dinner Environment

During dinner, we get to see things like this out our nice dining room bay window (Click on it to see a better view):

Then I turn around and see that I'm enjoying dinner with this cute squad of company:

"And I think to myself, What a wonderful world!"

President's Day

As I had the day off work on Monday, and since it conveniently snowed on Sunday, Amy and I had some time in the snow. In our very own snow. In our very own back yard. Wow that's nice! It's a couple days later now, so the sun has already been working on our creations, but here are some pictures I just took out our dining room window.

It's hard to tell, but the snow man is taller than me and looks in on our family meals. Bonnie told me that yesterday the girls were talking to him through the window. Cute!

I was working on making a slide for Amy, but when it was nearly ready, she peed her pants. *sigh* Too much fun in the snow and she didn't want to go inside I guess. Ah well, there will be more snowy opportunities in life I'm sure!

The House, inside, downstairs

The Playroom:

The Office (still a work in progress):

The Library:

The home's largest bathroom:

The Laundry (with Amy doing something funny) and Storage:

And that's our new home that we very much love!

The House, inside, upstairs

Finally, I know, but here it is!

Front Door / Living Room:

Master Bed / Bath:

Kids Beds / Bath:

Kitchen / Dining:

Garage:

From the mouth of.... toddlers?

We had an interesting conversation with Amy today after family scripture study:

Amy: "Last night, there were bad guys trying to hurt me, so I tried to hurt them."
Us: "Oh, pretend bad guys?"
Amy: "No, real bad guys. And I was a little bit scared, and so then I tried to scare them." (She put her hands up in their "scaring" position - palms forward, fingers looking ready to grab.)
Us: "Real bad guys?" (I was starting to wonder if she had a dream or something)
Amy: "Yeah. And then the real bad guys got scared because of the dinosaur."
Us (getting less concerned): "Of the dinosaur?"
Amy: "Yeah. And then the dinosaur got scared because of the... the... because of the Nephites!"
Us... after striving to contain laughter: "So you were scared of the bad guys, but the bad guys got scared because of the dinosaur and the dinosaur got scared because of the Nephites?"
Amy: "Yeah! The Nephites scared the dinosaur."

I don't know where it all came from, but she seemed totally serious about the whole thing!

Best Calling in the Church

I've never expected I'd get the chance to have my "dream" calling in the church. You know, the one you secretly covet even though you know you really shouldn't? Some people dream of being EQP, RSP, or maybe YM/YWP. (I pity the person who dreams of being a Bishop. Are you nuts?) Well, my dream calling is perhaps a bit unusual to most folks. Nonetheless, I've always hoped I'd get to do it.... and now I do! Yesterday I was sustained as the Primary Pianist for Senior Primary! W00t! (Okay, why is it that when I've typed in zero's, my blog is changing them to o's? It's W-zero-zero-t, with zero's, not o's. sigh.) It's a bit of a stretch for me as I'm not someone who can just sit down and play whatever music is put in front of me. I'm going to need all the songs ahead of time so I can practice! But yaaaaaay am I excited! Chris Martin, if you're reading this, you no longer need to worry about me stealing your calling away! We're contemporaries! :)

A Little "Help"

My old ward's book club (that I am still a part of) is reading The Help this month. I am just curious if anyone happens to own a copy that lives close by and would be willing to lend it to me. I have it on hold from the library on CD, but I don't think I will get it on time. I could buy it, but I resist buying books for the most part unless I really love it or I want it for a long period of time, for reference or something. I don't really reread, and I would so much rather save money and space in my house for other things unless it's a book I really want. (Please don't feel bad at my saying that if you've given me a book for a present before. Those have been appreciated. I like to own some books, and many I have been given have been nice ones to own.) Another option would be to go to book club without reading the book. I HATE that option if it's a book I'd like to read. I am very anti-spoiler. Sometimes this struggle has led me to a drastic option - skip book club. Don't like that one. This time, it's not possible. Book club is at my house. So I know this is a popular book right now, and I was just curious if anyone has it and would be fine with loaning it. Let me know. Thanks.

No Milk for You

This morning we had a follow up appointment about some news we got last week about Amy. She has some food allergies.

Milk, eggs, wheat.

Does that sound completely overwhelming to anyone but me? I know many people deal with food allergies and needing to change diets for kids and seem to do so gracefully. For me, this seems like a big deal. A major diet change for our family.

Luckily, the doctor said that Amy's wheat allergy was less than the other two and recommended we don't bother going off wheat at first. (Apparently going off wheat is WAY harder than the other two which I believed when I saw the list of ingredients to avoid with wheat.)

First of all, we have cereal almost every single morning. Amy always wants milk in a cup and milk in her bowl at breakfast. She drinks milk any chance I'll give her. Also, she LOVES all things dairy. Cottage cheese, yogurt, cheese sticks, pretty much any cheese. I think she'd have cheese for her meals if I'd let her. And we eat a lot of cheese on meals. We all love it.

I love making breakfast for dinner. Let's see, french toast: eggs, wheat bread, milk. That's it. I think we won't be having french toast for quite a while. We'll miss it. And macaroni and cheese, one of Amy's favorites? That would be a no.

Some things we will just not let Amy have, but others we won't be able to have either. My cooking has to change because I won't just make things especially for her. Some things will still work; some won't. I think I will be surprised by what I learn has milk in it.

So far Amy and I have talked about it a little. She didn't get chips with lunch that Noel and I ate. I told her they make her rash worse. She was sad but handled it well. So far, she has been brave. I imagine other times it will not be so easy for her to accept this. (Let's be honest, it wouldn't be easy for me either.) We have talked many times about things to help her rash feel better - bathing, lotion, no accidents, etc. She certainly doesn't like to have rashes so that should help. We just had no idea that some foods were contributing to her rashes.

So that's the main symptom - eczema. She has rashes come and go rather often. I don't know if the back of her knees are ever white - always red. Her legs itch. The worst is the diaper rash which didn't go away with diapers, unfortunately, partly due to the frequency of accidents Amy still has - more days with accidents than without. And many of them are due to her own reluctance to go to the bathroom. I think she is traumatized from previous potty pain. Maybe more than you wanted to know. I am sympathetic of her (as well as often frustrated and wondering when this will end.)

So I am taking it slow. Food already is a source of anxiety for me. I find it difficult to have to prepare 3 meals plus snacks for the whole family every day as is. The planning, budgeting, shopping, cooking, interrupting whatever else I may have been doing, struggling about how much Amy actually has to eat, trying to be well balanced. All these things have frustrated me over and over. So now it gets more complicated.

From my struggles over the last year, and especially some major anxiety and depression issues the end of 2010, I have learned a lot about myself and my needs to keep me healthy emotionally and mentally. One thing is to not overly commit myself (to too many things or too strong to any one thing.) This is a huge thing for me as it is hard for me to say no and easy for me to sign up, make up, or come up with extra things to do. And there are a few things that I get into all-or-nothing thinking about. Like when I get an idea of somethings I should work on EVERY DAY. I have had to limit very much the things I do every day. Only the essential things in life have to be done EVERY day. Scripture study, prayer, loving my family. I really prefer at least one family meal a day. There are so many other things I do, and many I do most days. But those are about the only ones I feel the need to do EVERY DAY.

The point of that paragraph is to say that since Amy's symptoms aren't life-threatening or really dangerous as far as we can tell - I am not committing to an overnight change. I am going to try.

I will buy milk substitutes, read labels, and do research. But I am not going to become paralyzed in feeding my family because I don't know enough yet about what I can feed them.

For friends and family who sometimes care for Amy, please don't stress too bad at this point if she eats something at your house that she is allergic to. We are not going to stress too bad either. Eventually I would like her cut back from dairy and eggs almost altogether, but not yet. We have been dealing with her rashes for so long; I don't think any of us pictured not having them as part of her life. So I don't want anyone to worry too much about what Amy can and can't eat if she happens to be eating at their house. One thing the dr. told me that I think will help a lot is that it says on most labels if milk products are included. That should make it easier.

While I am committed to doing research and putting time and effort into figuring this out myself, and while I have to do a lot of the work to fit the diet restrictions into our family's eating preferences, I know there are many out there who have a great deal more experience with some of these things. At this point, I am open to suggestions and great substitute ideas. I want to be open minded in this process. That said, we really aren't ready to be overwhelmed with others' great ideas about a massive change to our family's diet. That would overwhelm and frustrate me. Thanks anyway. I would love it if a result of these changes is a healthier family. I truly think this could be a blessing; we'll see what I say as time goes on, but I think that's true.

I also see help and mercy from Heavenly Father in the timing of this news. I've suspected some kind of allergy for Amy for a LONG time. It took me forever to get around to getting her into an allergist, forever again to go get her tested, and still forever again to find out the results. Most of that I thought was my own laziness/ stalling/ failing to get around to it, etc. However, I wonder if Heavenly Father somehow got His hand in this process - I don't always see how - to let me know now about her allergies, at a time where I am more able to cope. Again, I could get back to you later about further thoughts about this point.

Noel

If you want to know about how Noel eats, wonder no more. This says it all.

(Link: http://www.garfield.com/comics/vault.html?yr=1997&addr=970503 )

The House, outside

So we've been taking pictures of our new home and we still have a few to take. So, I'll present you with some teaser pictures of the outside for now.

More to come...

It's a Girl!!!!!

Pictures to be posted later - ultrasound pics that is.

And the Piano goes to ... Launi!

I feel like I just did one of those blog giveaway things (that I never do and don't picture myself ever doing - sorry if that disappoints.) Congratulations Launi, and sorry to everyone else who would like a free piano. I will surely let you know if another one comes my way. Doesn't seem likely, but who knows. It seems that many people have asked me if I want stuff they are giving away before. It's kind of crazy and also awesome.

Just thought I should let everyone know that Launi did decide to get it.

Anyone Want a Free Piano?

Someone in my old ward just called and asked if we were interested in a piano or if we knew someone who was. As we have inherited two pianos (I know, spoiled), we are not interested.

I know from time to time someone will say that they would love a piano but that it's not as high on their priority list. They'd wait til they could afford it better. This friend said the only charge she'll give is for professional movers to come move the piano. She doesn't want liability for the piano getting damaged by unprofessionals. (The piano's in her basement.)

Is anyone interested? Let me know.