A Birthday for a Princess!

Little H turned 5 on Friday the 13th of August!  On her birthday, I thought back to the day she was born.  I wondered if, when her birthday landed on Friday the 13th, if she would have a bad day.  I have to say that she did not.  This dispelled any lingering thoughts of superstition that I may have had.  No bad luck for Little H or anyone in our household!  In fact, to Little H's good fortune, we celebrated her birthday for 3 days!  Since Hoss (daddy) has to work every week night until well after bedtime, we decided that we would celebrate the next day (Saturday).

So here is how it worked out:  

Friday:  Little H got to open a present that her cousin from Utah sent to her.  She was so excited, since it had arrived in our mail box the day before.  She was not happy to wait.... but she survived!  The present contained an enormous pair of glasses, fun little crazy bracelets, and some jelly bellies!  To top it off, there was a card written from her cousin.

Little H was super excited to take her enormous glasses to school.  She started Kindergarten earlier that week, and Friday was her very first full day of school.  She got to take a birthday treat for her class mates and do a show and tell (which was her enormous glasses).  She had a blast that day at school!

Saturday:  Hoss (daddy) went to do a service project with the young men in the ward.  There is an older lady whose room had been leaking.  They got a hold of the shingles, tools, and plenty of water and headed over to her house at 6:30 that morning.  It was a very long, hot project.  Each of the men and young men took turns slaving away on top of the room.  Hoss got home close to 2 or 3pm.  We were so happy that he could serve the woman in need... yet we were very ready for him to be home so we could start our party!

I didn't have time to bake Little H's birthday cake yet, but hoped to do so later that night (it didn't happen).  After Hoss got showered, we took the birthday presents and headed out to Dairy Queen where we ate "linner" and opened presents!  Little H was so excited to get some fun beads and a Jessie and Bullseye doll from Toy Story.  It has been the hit of the toys ever since (we might have to encourage Santa to bring more of the Toy Story toys this December).

Following dinner, we decided to take the girls (Big T and Little H) to the movies.  We watched Cats and Dogs.  To my surprise, it was a cute movie.  I may have been partial to the German shepherd that looked exactly to my belated dog Boomer.

After the movie, we went into the mall in search of some pretty dresses and church shoes for the girls.  Both of them got two dresses and one pair of shoes.  All of them were well over due.  

Needless to say, it was a very long day, and by the time we got home, I did not have the birthday cake baked.  And since Baby takes all of my extra energy (I am now 15 weeks pregnant), I decided to go to bed.  Church would be all too soon.

Sunday:  We went to church, just like every other Sunday.  It is always such a wonderful way to recharge our spiritual batteries and relax.  After church, we went home and just hung out.  I baked the birthday cake, and we decided to watch a very cute family movie called "Follow Me, Boys!"  It is an older movie about boy scouts (Hoss works in the morning time at the boy scout office here--the lent us the movie).  It turns out that this movie is very long!  I ended up frosting the cake around 9pm.  The movie got over shortly after that, and we moved into the kitchen to light the candles and take pictures of Little H blowing them out.  I might add that Little H had fallen asleep on Hoss's lap during the movie.  She was tired, but was still excited to blow out those candles.  The funny thing is, we just went to bed after that.  We ended up having cake the next day.  

This is the recap of our very poorly planned birthday weekend to celebrate Little H turning five!  We had fun, but missed all of our Idaho, Arizona, and Cali family!  

And now pictures!

 Little H's birthday hair do.  It is called chutes and ladders.  It is only half the do, but it turned out cute!

 
 Little H: The birthday girl!





Big sister, Big T, wishing she could open some presents too!

Present #1...................drum roll please!

 Cool creative beads!  They have been a hit!... found them at Target FYI

 Present #2!  The suspense was killing both Little H, and Big T!!

 The girls BOTH love Toy Story.  So they were thrilled to see this super cool toy, Jessie and Bulls Eye!  Needless to say, we have had to monitor the turn taking with this particular toy.  Usually one girl is Jessie, while the other is Bulls Eye.  And Little H sleeps with both nearly every night!

 Finally!!! BIRTHDAY CAKE!  I'm so glad we finally got to that point of the 3 day party!

 Like a tornado that blew out the candles!  Great work Little H!  We love you!  We are so glad that we got to celebrate five years of your life!

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Still to come pictures of our visit to the Carlsbad Caverns!  Hope your weeks is fantastic!


Keep checking!

Times are Changing!

Okay, so I repent for not being as thorough with my family's comings and goings this summer.  In my defense, I have had a ringer of a summer... but it is turning out pretty good I think!

Tressa and Hailee are starting school next week!  I can't believe that my baby of the two is starting school.  It is very easy for me to remember rocking her when she was a third of the size.  I suppose it makes me a little sad, but I am so excited for her to experience school.  We met her teacher yesterday, and I have to say that I am excited for Hailee!  She will be such a fun and exciting teacher.  Her name is Mrs. Simitz.  She is an experienced teacher with a lot of energy!  She already has Hailee excited to make ginger bread cookies for one of the very first activities!

We have not yet met Tressa's teacher.  I am told that we should learn who he or she is today.  I think Tressa feels a little bit left out, since Hailee is getting so much attention.  Since we moved toward the end of the school year, we could not transfer Tressa's information, or else she would have had to switch schools at the last minute.  I got her all registered on Monday, and I have a feeling that she is going to really enjoy her school year as well!

The school that Tressa was going to was fine, but the crowd was a rougher one.  I think Tressa and Hailee both will make some good friends and have a very positive experience at this new school.  They are attending Valley View Elementary, and I have been impressed with every aspect thus far!

There are many changes that are working their way to the top at this time.  They will be fully disclosed as the time comes!  We are very grateful to be where we are.  We are happy, and healthy... even though we miss all of our family in Idaho, Arizona, and California!  We wish you all a happy beginning of the school year.... end of the summer..... start of a new season to you all (whatever it is that is changing in your life)!

Keep checking!  I suspect changes very soon to be posted!

A Chance Meeting: No It Was Fate

This story is a very unique one.  It starts out as the same old, "boy meets girl."

I had just moved to Pocatello, Idaho from Soda Springs.  I was fresh out of high school, and ready to live my life.  My plan was to not get married for at least five years.  I had ambitious plans of getting my doctorate in psychology (that was before I realized how much science would have to go into that degree).  It was crazy how I found the place I was to live.  I searched for weeks for the right place, and believe me, I was desperate.  I would have taken anything just over the thrill of being off on my own!   Every place I inquired about had some kind of issue.  They all fell through.  I finally found a house that had one room open for rent.  I had no clue who the other girls were that I would be living with, but I took it.

I signed the lease and moved in a few days before school was set to start at Idaho State University.  My house was at a prime location, one block away from campus.  I was in love with freedom!

When I put my key in the door to show my parents my new pad, I met my roomies for the very first time.  Little did I know that they had no idea that they were even getting another roommate!  My roommates names were, Tiffany Molder, and Terra Hale.  I might add that we had terrible land lords.

On a side note, our landlords would come into our house without ever telling us that they were coming over.  One very early Saturday morning (I'm talking around 6:30 am), I awoke to a vacuum running through the living room.  I got up and half asleep staggered out of my room.  The person before me was some little old lady that I had never met (I only dealt with the land lord's son, because she lived out of town).  I was so puzzled as to who on earth was in my house!  I found out later who it was.  I finally wrote her a letter, after a few more instances, telling her that I expected a phone call before anyone was to enter my house.  I don't think it ever happened again in this house.

Anyway, back to the story.  I became fast friends with my new roomies.  We set up weekly cleaning schedules (which Tiffany seemed to be the only one to follow through with--sorry Tiff).  We also began to attend church together and go to school social gatherings.

Tiffany was at work or school most of the time.  She was working two jobs.  Terra had one job, and I too had one job.  I worked at Telerperformance USA.  It was a call center.  It was a wonderful job where I would call people all over the country who had purchased Miracle Blades and try to sell them some shoe inserts that were supposedly heaven for your feet (insert sarcasm here).  I hated my job, but it paid well.  After a month of working there, I realized that they never missed me when I was gone.  They never even realized that I was gone.  So, little by little, I began to stop going to that job.   Eventually, I just unofficially just quit by never going there again.  I did get my paychecks though, in the mail.  Needless to say, I do not list that job on my resume.

I was taking some very basic courses in college.  English 101, some class like university success, and survey of art.  I'll just say that I was not ready to go to college at this time.  I bombed my classes.  Hind sight, it would have been better for me to focus on making money, and growing up before I even attempted college.  I just did not have the study ethic to get it done, and succeed with it.

Now, I am getting off track.  This is the background of my new independent life.  There is a major twist in there yet to be seen.

After the first few weeks of school had passed by, my roommates and I decided to attend the biggest "Mormon" dance of the year.  It was the open social for the LDS Institute of Religion.  We were so excited to go.  We were all single, and looking for the next guy to date.  Some of our guy friends had promised to try and introduce Terra and I to some guys that we might be interested in.  That was a mistake for me.

We walked in, and you could feel the tension.  People wanting to be asked, and people so nervous that their hands were sweating.  It was the official "meat market" for the year.  Most dances after this one were pretty lame.  Tiffany's guy friend, Matt (I believe) introduced me to a decent looking guy that unfortunately reminded me a little bit of my brother (sorry Paul), but this guy had to go.  He was very nice, and I'm sure would have been a great example to me, but he was just not it.  I knew after being introduced to him, that he would soon be back to ask me to dance.  So pretty much any slow dance song, I would "disappear."  I was successful at evading him for a while.

In the meantime, Terra saw two guys that she knew from this weird competition marching band thing.  It was called Drum Corps.  She had a bunch of pictures of her and her band hanging on her wall (it was very different--nothing I had ever seen or heard of before--sorry Terra, I was ignorant back then).  Well anyway, I was indifferent, while she got excited and ran up to them to give them a hug.  I was kind of looking around, and when I saw the "nice guy" coming toward me, I decided to get involved with Tressa's reunion.  I hadn't gotten a very good look of either of the guys, because Terra was kind of in the way.  But as I walked up to where they stood, I saw them for the first time... I saw him.  How I remember it now, nearly eight years ago, I don't remember seeing anything else.  I just saw this great looking, jovial guy that had a contagious personality.  His name.  Jason Anthony Curtis.

He was a natural flirt.  He teased me because I had a curling iron burn on my forehead.  He said it looked like a hickey.  Honestly, who gets a hickey on their forehead?  I couldn't help it.  I was a sucker for the joking type.  He wound up asking me to dance, and we talked and joked some more.  We ended up talking quite a bit over the next thirty minutes or so.

At some point, I finally was tracked down by Nice Guy.  I must have been too distracted to constantly keep space between him and me.  The dance was stiff, and awkward.  There was nearly zero communication, and his breath stank.  I was relieved when the song was over.  I thanked him for the dance and was on my way.

The time came when Tiffany had to be to work, and since we all road together to the dance, we had to take her to work.  We informed Jason and his friend Tyson Fuller of our plans, but that we would be back.  We were serious about that.

According to Jason though, he was sure that we were gone for good.  So he shrugged it off, and decided to find another girl to dance with.  I must point this out that true to our word, Terra and I returned to the dance about thirty minutes later.  I was too interested in this guy Jason to give up just yet.

On the drive to Channel 6 News, where Tiffany worked, I couldn't help but toss around the idea of wedding bells and this Jason Curtis.  I know!  Very odd!  I had just met him, but there was something about him--something magical.

We returned to the dance, and I immediately looked out for Jason.  I had a hard time finding him and thought he had left.  But after a few minutes, I ended up spotting him.  He danced a few dances with some short little girl that I loathed (of course, I was jealous).  Little did I know that he was keeping tabs on me too, and he finally asked me to dance with him again.  I was twitterpated by this time.

I believe we only danced two dances together, and I have no idea what those songs were.  Sometimes I wish that I would have paid attention to that, but the only thing I was thinking about was this wonderful guy.

The dance came to a close around midnight.  Jason informed Terra and myself that he was going to the university movie theater with his brother Andrew and friend Tyson.  He invited us to join him.  Of course we went.  I couldn't get this guy out of my head.  I sat next to him during Spider Man, but he seemed to be watching me more than watching the movie.  I would see him looking at me through the corner of my eye, only to look away when I tried to catch him.  What a tease!

The night we met was somewhere around September 9th, 2002.  I am not positive about that date.  That is another detail that I seemed to not pay attention to.

This is just the beginning!

A Temporary New Member To Our Family

Last Saturday, Tressa, Hailee, and Titus were out back playing on the swings and digging in the dirt, when apparently, their play time got interrupted by a small kitten taking refuge from the 108 degree heat.  Hailee, the animal lover that she is did not hesitate to pick up the kitten and bring it to me saying, "MOMMY!!!  I found a kitten!"

Well, I didn't hear Hailee at first.  So Tressa took it upon herself to come in ahead of Hailee to speak with me.  "Mom, Hailee found a kitty, and she is bringing it in the house."

"What?"  I said.  "Where?"

"Under the grill."  Tressa always feels pleased when she can be the one to inform anyone of breaking news.

I walked out into the kitchen, and sure enough.  Hailee had just walked in gently holding a cute black and white kitten.  However, the kitten was limp.  So I got closer to examine the poor little thing.  It had obviously been separated from its mamma, or been abandoned.  His eyes were sealed shut from puss, and he couldn't even meow.  You could feel his ribs, hips and spine sticking out prominently.  I immediately asked for a towel and a wash cloth. Stat.

Everyone was more than willing to comply.  I got out one of the suringes that you feed babies medicine with, and filled it with water.  I put it to the kitten's mouth, and it immediately started drinking it.  After drinking a tiny bit of water, the kitten couldn't seem to take any more.  So I then wetted the wash cloth and began gently softening the dried puss around the eyes and clearing it out.

The poor kitty finally was able to open both eyes.  It was so cute, and Tressa and Hailee were so taken by him.  They started calling him Benny.  The fun thing is that Titus (big dog) was just as taken with this kitten as was the girls.

Here is a little background.  Over the last week or so, we would let Titus out and he would run toward the same piece of fence every time.  I thought that was odd.  But, we soon realized that stray cats have their babies in our neighbor's wood piles.  I am talking enormous wood piles that pretty much take up their whole back yard!  I figured that another cat had babies again (this is not the first time this has happened).

The way that Titus acted toward this baby kitty was very protective.  He would stand over it, sniff it, and nudge it with his nose trying to get it up on its feet.  At first we were very nervous with him, and were right there just in case he might want to harm the kitten.  Can you blame us?  I have known many dogs that want to just kill them.  Later that day, Jason and the girls laid down for a small ciesta.  We put the kitten in our rom in a box by our bed.  Titus has a bed in the far corner of our room.  He did not sleep on it.  Instead, he slept right next to the kitten's box.

Over the next few days, I had been in contact with a friend (Marilyn Kukachka), and she had coached me on how to take care of it.  She had mentioned that the kitty was probably younger than I thought, and now I agree with her.  She instructed me on how to make a kitten formula, and Benny took to it really well.  It was so much fun to feed it to him like a baby.  He even seemed to be improving.  I just think that he finally felt safe.

We would sit on the floor by him, and he would blindly come toward us and climb up onto our laps, the girls included.  Hailee was especially fond of holding him.

The cutest moment was when the kitty was moving around in his box, and Titus stuck his head in there to sniff him.  The kitty was squinting out of a small portion of his eye lids (since they were pretty much sealed shut).  He looked right up at Titus and began purring.  It was very sweet.

The kitten really grew on us, but we knew that we could not keep him.  I have been wanting a cat for quite some time, but it is just not part of our lease, and we just can't afford to feed another mouth right now.  So unfortunately, we had to call the humane society to come and get him.  I realized that the longer we kept him, the harder it would be to get rid of him.  So I pray that they are able to take care of him, and get him better.  He would make a very sweet cat.

They came and picked him up yesterday, and as soon as I let Titus back inside upon their departure, he began sniffing around almost frantically looking for his new friend.  He seemed a little bit down for the rest of the day.  Since most of the time with Benny around, Titus would have a great big grin on his face with his tongue hanging out and panting happily.  I think Titus will miss the kitten the most.  Maybe he feels like he needed to protect the poor baby kitty.


I think this is what Benny would have looked like had he been healthy, and older.  I have some pictures of him, but they are on my phone.  I will get them off soon.  I have some pictures of Titus licking him.








That is what is new in New Mexico for now!

We are excitedly awaiting for Grandpa and Grandma Campbell to come for a visit next week!