Grandpa's funeral

Have you missed me? Because I've missed blogging. We took a whirlwind trip to Salt Lake for Grandpa Ranquist's funeral. We left early Saturday morning and just got home last night around 9. My head is still spinning. What time zone am I in? What day is it? Hopefully I'll get settled again soon.

The funeral was really a wonderful service. I enjoyed it a lot. I'm so thankful that our whole family could go out.

In fact, all of Andrew's immediate family was there.
It was a great time to visit and enjoy each other's company.

The funeral home had this GREAT kids room with a TV, movies, and toys.
What more could a kid want? It was perfect for the viewing, when the
adults just wanted to visit with extended family members and friends.

Since Grandpa's health had been wavering for the last couple of years and had gotten worse over the last couple of months, his death had been expected. So the shock and dismay that sometimes comes with funerals wasn't there. It was more of a happy feeling. Relief that he was done suffering. Gratitude for the way he touched our lives. Confidence in knowing we'll see him again.

The saddest part of the funeral for me was when they closed the casket and Andrew's dad, Dennis, gave the family prayer. It was a very touching prayer and it's such a moment of finality--Grandpa is really gone. There were a lot of sniffles and tears at that time. Many were my own.

Andrew conducted the funeral. He did a great job. He is very confident and comfortable in front of people. I like watching him conduct. Uncle Alex gave Grandpa's life history. He did a good job. I heard some stories I hadn't known before. And he was able to use some of Grandpa's own words, which was great. There were two really good musical numbers--a men's chorus of Grandpa's sons and grandsons and then Andrew's sister, Angie, sang a beautiful solo. I love her voice. Andrew's brother, Tony, also gave a talk. I guess about 2 years ago Grandpa had asked him to speak at his funeral. (Way to plan ahead!) And he told Tony, "Teach the gospel. And teach it good." Tony is a teacher by profession and it showed. He was entertaining, spiritual, and captivating. Even Brandon listened intently. (That takes a lot.)

Here are the pallbearers. Andrew, Forrest (brother-in-law), Tony(brother),
and all of his male cousins--Adam, Jonathan, Drake, and Nate.
(Dave is the only one missing--he had to fly home early.)

Here are Barb and Dennis (Andrew's parents) with some extended Sweat Family relatives. (Maybe I should've written their names down. I already forgot!) This is a special treat because Andrew's Grandpa Sweat died when Andrew's dad was still a little boy. We never really get together with that side of the family. It was nice to meet some of them at the funeral.

I'll post more about our trip at another time, but I have a lot of laundry to do and Brandon just got home from school. Already?

In Memory of Grandpa Ranquist

We got a call this morning to let us know that Andrew's Grandpa Ranquist passed away today. His health has been deteriorating for the past several years, but he has always managed to bounce back. Even though we knew this day would be coming, it's hard to imagine him not being here. I'm thankful for my knowledge of eternal life and that we'll see him again.

Grandpa and Grandma Ranquist
December 2005

These are some of the things I will remember about Grandpa:
*How he made me feel welcome and a part of the family from the first time I met him.
*His deep, powerful voice.
*His great love for his family and the way he always voiced it.
*His example of hard work.
*His example of enduring to the end.
*His example of church service and love for the Lord.
*Him whispering compliments in my ear every time I gave him a hug.
*His on-going joke about his hearing aid whistling whenever a pretty girl was nearby.
*His big, meaty hands.
*The annual Ranquist Christmas party. I'll especially remember the one where he got serious and called everyone's attention and said, "This is something I've always wanted to do." He proceeded to take out his partial denture and sing, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth." It was so out of character and hilarious.
*His confidence in Andrew--always telling Andrew that he was capable of great things.
*Visiting him in his assisted-living apartment when he was all excited to let Brandon ride on his Jazzy. It was so sweet and thoughtful.
*His interest in and concern for my side of the family. He would regularly ask, "How are your parents? How is your Grandma?" I always knew he cared.

Grandpa will be missed!

My weekend is falling apart!

I had plans for a fun, busy weekend and I'm afraid it is all falling to pieces. First, I had planned to go to the temple tonight. It's something I don't get to do often enough. I wish I could go with Andrew, but it's just so hard to get a babysitter for 5 HOURS, which is how long it takes to drive up to Raleigh, go to the temple, and drive home. So, I had just decided to go by myself tonight. Well, wouldn't you know--there's a chemical explosion in Apex (the same town where the temple is located) that made national news and the temple is closed for the day. Foiled!

I am supposed to be participating in a Women Only 5K race in the morning to benefit breast cancer research. I've been planning this with two of my good friends for months. Now it is cloudy and overcast with chances of showers. I guess if it rains, they don't reschedule the race, they just donate all our entry fees to the research. I'm still holding out hope that the weather will be ok, though.

I'm also planning on participating in a tennis clinic tomorrow afternoon with three friends and a tennis pro, but if the weather is bad I'm sure that will be cancelled too. I'm trying not to get too bummed over this, since it's out of my control.

TV is back!

"Lost" has got to be my favorite show on TV. No other show can make me scared, excited, nervous, confused, or happy like that one. The premiere for this season was last night and Andrew even made it home from Bishopric in time to watch it with me. We groan every time it ends--isn't there more??? Who is the blond girl that was interviewing Jack? She looks familiar, but I can't place her. Does Henry Gale freak you out? I get chills just looking at him. I was so scared for Kate when he told her, "The next two weeks are not going to be pleasant..." Yikes! If you're a LOST watcher, what were your thoughts on the show? My friend, Nicolle, and I were talking before the show started about how high our expectations were. Mine were met! Great show.

A new show started last night, too, called THE NINE. Did anyone give that a shot? The previews looked so intriguing, so Andrew and I gave it a try. I don't know if I'll stick with it or not. The character development looks like it will be really good, but there were a couple of skanky things in there they didn't need to include.

In other happenings around here, I got my application in for BYU!!!

In looking over the requirements, there is no way it can be easier for me to finish my degree anywhere else. I completed 97.5 credits while I was there, so I think I'll have around 33 left. (They can't tell me until I'm officially admitted). If I do get in, I'll get my Bachelor's in General Studies with an emphasis in Psychology. I've never really been interested in Psychology, but they don't have any biological sciences available, and this was the emphasis I had the most credits toward. :) All of the coursework will be done online.

The funny part about the application process is that you need an ecclesiastical endorsement from your Bishop as part of your application. I called Andrew at work, "Um. Do I need to schedule an appointment with your executive secretary, or can you just interview me at home?" He said he could do it at home. Phew. But he did put on a white shirt and tie to be official. I think I passed the interview.

And the other big, exciting news is that Brandon learned to ride his bike without training wheels. Yeah for him! We took them off a few weeks ago, but he's been afraid to ride it ever since. On Tuesday after work, we met Andrew at a park that has flat walking trails and took his bike along. He rocked! The hard part about riding around our neighborhood is that there are so many hills. He starts going too fast and is afraid he'll wreck. And it's a legitimate fear. So the flat trails were perfect. One of the trails makes a loop around the playground, so Andrew and I would take turns playing with Whit while the other made sure there were no major wrecks on the bike. He did awesome. Yesterday the first thing he said when he got home from school: "Mom, can I ride my bike?"

Yummy dessert, picnic lunch

Do you ever feel like your life revolves around food? Sometimes I do. Here is the yummy treat I made for FHE last night. It was kind of my own creation, but inspired by a recipe I got out of kraft's food and family magazine.

I crushed up some oreo's and put them in the bottom. Then a layer of white chocolate pudding. Then another layer of oreos and a layer of cherry pie filling. Then chocolate pudding, cherries, and topped it off with more oreos. It was so yummy! And, of course, really easy. I don't know how to make anything hard! :)

Andrew gave our family home evening lesson. It was a review of general conference and what we can do in our family with the things we learned. When he asked Brandon his favorite story, Brandon thought for a minute and then said, "Oh. I know. It's the one where the little boy told his dad to move the mountains with the priesthood. That was so funny!" I was really impressed that he remembered that. We hadn't brought it up since listening to it the first time. Whitney said her favorite part was, "President Hinckley!" Again, impressed that neither of them said, "M&M's!" which is probably what I would've said at their age.

Since it's the start of a new month, my kids got their fun money for the month. They earn money for cleaning the play room each night and for staying out of time out. (Brandon already lost that one for the day.) We put their money in piggy banks and then count it up at the end of the month. They pay tithing on it, put 20% in savings, and then they get to do whatever they want the rest. Brandon almost always spends his on candy. Whitney usually saves hers throughout the month and buys little toys or stickers at the dollar store on occasion. (Or 10 cent play-doh if she can find it!) Well, today she had her heart set on buying teacups. I don't know where that came from, but she woke up asking to do that. I had to go grocery shopping, so we looked for teacups at Super Walmart and found a set for $2.84. She had $4 fun money, so it was perfect. She held them in the basket while I did my grocery shopping and as soon as we got home, she wanted to, "put water in them."

So we had this cute little "tea" party in the backyard after we got home.

The weather was SO gorgeous (I swear it feels like summer came back!) that we decided to have a picnic lunch out in the backyard. It has been a great morning.

Book Recommendation

I just finished reading a wonderful book. It was C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters. I have heard a lot about it over the years and finally borrowed (ok, took) it from my mom when I was visiting her this summer. It was a great! For those who haven't heard of it, it is a series of letters from a senior devil to his junior devil, instructing him how to best tempt a human. What a creative way to get a commentary out. It addresses many topics--humility, selfishness, marriage, morality... very well-rounded.

Do you like my "Barker's Beauty" pose? :)
And the actual retail price is....

One of the letters talks about time and our use of it. Here are a couple of sample paragraphs, if you're interested:
"You will have noticed that nothing throws him [the man he's trying to tempt] into a passion so easily as to find a tract of time which he reckoned on having at his own disposal unexpected taken from him. It is the unexpected visitor (when he looked forward to a quiet evening)... that throws him out of gear. Now he is not yet so uncharitable or slothful that these small demands on his courtesy are in themselves too much for it. They anger him because he regards his time as his own and feels that it is being stolen. You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption 'My time is my own.' Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor of twenty-four hours.
"You have here a delicate task. The assumption which you wnat him to go on making is so absurd that, if once it is questioned, even we cannot find a shred of argument in its defence. The man can neither make, nor retain, one moment of time; it all comes to him by pure gift..."

How true. And how often I do guard my time as my own. Made me think.

In other events around here, it was a BEAUTIFUL day here. It felt like summer again instead of fall. We were playing outside after B got home from school. He was doing tricks on his scooter while wearing a Batman mask. You know, just a normal afternoon. :)

Look at that SWEET air!

Whitney practiced her pretty
"princess smile" while snacking on popcorn.

Hope your week is off to a good start.

Another conference tradition

As part of our family emergency preparedness plan, we have grab-it-and-go-bags(or, as some people call them, 72 hour kits). The idea is that we could just take them with us if we had to leave the house in an emergency. After seeing what happened after Hurricane Katrina, I think someone would probably kill us for the stuff that's in them, but I keep them anyway. When we were in college at BYU, we heard a great piece of advice that we actually use: Go through your kits every 6 months during General Conference. Take out all the stuff that's going to expire in the next six months and replace it. So, that's what we do. The fun part is, we get to eat all the snacks while we listen to conference.

Here was out stash this year. Both kids loved the
fruit roll-ups. I never buy those for them. And Whitney
loved the Slim Jim's--who knew??

Whitney has been doing an amazing job of potty training. I can't believe it.

For one of her potty prizes today, she picked out some purple lip gloss. Uh, note to self: I think she's too young for lip gloss. She slathered it all over her face. Can you see how much is on her upper lip? Yuck! She also decorated her own patch today. Very nice.

The afternoon session of conference today was my favorite. I love Elder Bednar! He rocks. His talk about not taking offense was so great. I am not the type of person who does take offense very easily. But, I also don't think things through very much before I say them, so I'm afraid I could offend others unintentionally. So, I hope that everyone in my ward listened closely so I don't have to worry about that. :)

One of my other favorites was Elder Roger A. Merrill who talked about receiving by the Spirit. I am a big believer that we don't just go to church to see what other people can offer us. The larger responsibility for what we get out of our worship lies with us. It was a good reminder for me. And it made me think, I use my kids as an excuse for not getting much out of sacrament meeting, but I think if I was really putting forth the effort that I needed to, I'd still receive the things I needed out of my meetings.

The funniest part of conference in our house was during one of the musical numbers. They were showing the chorister on the screen and Brandon asked, "Hey, is that the guy from Seinfeld?" He was a bald man and Brandon thought he looked just like George Costanza. I cracked up laughing. Then I thought, "How does Brandon know what the characters on Seinfeld look like?"

General Conference

Ahhh...General Conference weekend. Gotta love it. Twice a year we get to listen to our church leaders in Salt Lake City on Saturday and Sunday instead of our usual Sunday meetings. In our house, we watch the broadcasts on the internet. Today went SO well. I was so impressed with Brandon and Whitney. They have two choices: They can sit and listen with us, playing a little listening game or they can go play in the playroom. Brandon stayed with us and listened to conference for the whole 4 hours!! And even Whitney probably "listened" for about 2 hours or so.
We let them play a game called "Conference Squares" that I got out of the Apr 2004 Friend Magazine. It's basically BINGO. There are pictures to represent words like prophets, love, prayer, Jesus Christ, temple. They have to listen for the speakers to say the word and then they put an M&M on that square. (Again, violating my self-imposed rule of not using candy as a reward!) At the end of each speaker they can eat the M&M's that they've collected.

Brandon was a GREAT listener. He ended up getting a ziploc baggie and saving some of his M&M's because he'd gotten so many. At the end of conference, I asked him what he learned and what words he had heard the most. He said, "Forgiveness. They said that a lot. And Jesus Christ. They talked about Him all the time because we love Him." So cute.

Here's Whitney enjoying her M&M's, too.

It has been great to have Andrew home for the day and to just chill out at home together and be spiritually fed. I've loved it. There were some really good talks today. I think my favorite was Elder Ballard's where he talked about, "Oh, be wise. What can I say more?" I loved his adice about our church callings and how to serve wisely. I also enjoyed Elder Robert C. Oaks' talk about patience. I'll have to re-read it when it comes out in the Ensign because I missed the beginning while putting Whitney down for her nap. But I liked his quote from Elder Maxwell where he said, "When you and I are unduly impatient, we are suggesting that we like our timetable better than God’s." How often do I do that? And I liked his advice to reommit each day to become more patient.

I look forward to another spiritually uplifting day tomorrow!

Best husband ever

(The title is supposed to be read in the voice of the comic book guy from the Simpsons!)

Andrew has been gone for 4 of the last 5 days. First he had that scout training and then he had a business trip. We've missed him! But at least it's getting easier to take care of the kids on my own now that they're older. Or maybe I'm just used to it more because he's gone so often for church. :)

Anyway, he did the cutest thing for us before he left for his business trip. He went and got two little gifts for each of us--one to open each day that he was gone. The kids thought that was great. So did I. I got cheesecake one night. mmmmmm.....cheesecake...

The kids got silly string as one of their gifts.

They had never seen silly string before and it was a hit! The spray button was a little too hard for Whitney to push, so I had to "help" her squirt Brandon. :) They giggled uncontrollably. It was so fun...and messy.

Another day Whitney got these two HUGE balloons.

You can definitely tell she has an older brother. The first thing she said when I blew them up: "Let's have a light saber fight!" and proceeded to make the light saber sound effects.

I was very happy to have Andrew come home last night. Hopefully he'll stay a while this time.

Whit and I went to story time this morning. We had a cute conversation about it over lunch.
Me: What were the stories about at story time today?
W: I don't know.
Me: They were about feelings, remember? What are some of the feelings we read about?
W: Happy.
Me: That's right! What's another one?
W: Sad.
Me: Very good! Do you know any other feelings?
W: Fish.

:)

Shopping and lunch--life is good

Now that Whitney is progressing in her potty training, I had to restock my potty prize jar. In theory, I don't believe in using food as a reward. But it's just so darn easy to say, "If you use the potty, you'll get a piece of candy..." So that's what we've been doing for the past couple of (unsuccessful) months. I prefer to use something like this:

Cheap little trinkets that are not food.

We went to Big Lots, Tuesday Morning, and the dollar store yesterday and got a pretty good stash. And the prizes are working--Whitney stayed dry ALL DAY yesterday. What a big girl. I am SO proud of her. While running our errands, she also proved that she is quite a bargain shopper herself! She wanted PlayDoh. Yes, her grandma just brought some for her when she visited, but Whit always forgets to put the lids on, so it doesn't last very long. We looked at Big Lots, but couldn't find anything under $2, which is all the fun money she had left. At Tuesday Morning she found this:

It's just one tall jar that was all by itself.
There was no price tag. We took it up to
the register and they said she could have it
for TEN CENTS! That's a bargain!

In between our shopping trips, we stopped at Brandon's school to have lunch with him. It's so fun to see him there, looking like such a big boy. And he always gets excited to see us, too. It was Johnny Appleseed's birthday yesterday, so all the kids had these "pans" on their heads.

Brandon Appleseed

Last time we went, he was at a table with all boys, but yesterday he was sitting with all girls. They were so cute and fun to visit with.

I don't know if the teachers like it when we go to lunch with B, though. They're supposed to be silent for the first 10 minutes of lunch, so the kids will eat. But the teachers are very vague about this rule. They don't tell the kids when 10 minutes is up, so they usually just sit there ignoring each other the whole time. How boring is that? So we had fun talking and laughing with the kids at our table. I hope the teachers don't ban us from coming back.

The other exciting thing I did yesterday--I went to an adult transfer student information session at a local university. I've decided I want to go back to college and finish my bachelors. This movie quote from Tommy Boy comes to mind, "A lot of people go to college for seven years." "I know. They're called doctors." I was in school for 5 1/2 years, but all I have to show for it is an associate's degree. I've always thought I'd go back and finish, but have just kept putting it off. I feel like now might be a good time. So I got some good info from the session last night and I'm also requesting some details from BYU's online program. We'll see what happens!

Monday can be a fun day, too

And we had a very fun Monday. I tried something new with Whitney's hair this morning.

I French braided it. (Andrew would probably call them Freedom Braids.)

You can tell it was my first time. I need some practice. They didn't last

very long. They were too loose and she looked a mess before lunch time. Darn.

Speaking of lunchtime, we got a special treat. We met Andrew

at McDonalds for lunch.

It was so nice. We used to meet him for lunch once a week, but things have been so hectic at work that we haven't done it for several months. It was kind of weird to not have Brandon with us, but Whitney sure enjoyed the attention.

After school, we had a Family Home Evening on following prophets and then we drove to Chuck E Cheese!

It was a blast.

Here's Brandon on one of his favorite rides there

the MONSTER TRUCK.

In big and exciting news... Whitney won her first BONUS!

She was playing one of those games where there's a series of lights that turn on one at a time and you have to press a button to stop it at just the right time. They are impossible. I can't win on them. Andrew can't. Brandon can't. But, Whitney had beginner's luck and the magic touch because she won these 75 tickets all by herself! Way to go, Whit!

There were a couple of other games that were generous with the tickets and we ended up with 434 by the end. I thought that was pretty good considering I didn't win the 250 skeeball bonus this time and we were only there for about 45 minutes.

Brandon wants to start a new incentive calendar to fill in for good behavior in the mornings. I was hoping it was just a habit now, but we'll see what happens. When I woke him up this morning, he did say, "I'm not going." and I hadn't heard that in a while. He got over it pretty quickly, though.

Potty training for Whit is going surprisingly well. I can't believe it. She wore a pull-up all day yesterday and only had one accident before we went to Chuck E. Cheese's. Then today she stayed dry all morning even though we were out running errands. When I put her down for her nap at 2:15, she was in the same pull-up I put on this morning. Amazing.

Our weekend

Let's see...I can't believe the weekend is already over. We had a really fun morning on Saturday. We met up with two of our friends from last year's preschool class and let the kids play at the park. They had fun and I loved visiting with the other moms. Win-win situation.

Andrew was gone to Basic Training for Scout Leaders. He left early Saturday morning and got home Sunday evening.

Does he look cute in his uniform or what? :)

It seems like whenever he's gone, I try to keep us really busy so I don't start feeling lonely. So, we went out to Wendy's for lunch. And then stopped by Borders to return their expensive board books. (+$24 on the budget--woo hoo!) We came home to put Whitney down for her nap and Brandon and I read and played a couple of games.

Saturday evening was the annual broadcast from Salt Lake City for the women at church. Our stake had a dinner and activity beforehand which started at 6 and the broadcast ended at 9:30. They provided child care for those who needed it, but I didn't think Whitney would make it until 9:30 pm without being a big grump. Thank goodness for good friends. I didn't really want to pay a babysitter for 5 hours, so I asked our friend, Greg, if he would come hang out with the kids for a couple of hours and then put them to bed. He agreed. What a great guy! The kids love him and had fun. The activity and broadcast were really good. I always walk away from them holding my head a little higher because I'm a woman. (I've heard this is very different than the way the men feel after leaving their broadcasts every six month--but it's true!) The speakers make us feel so loved and capable. It's great.

Sunday mornings are always a rush around here, but Brandon was my super big helper this week. I was blow-drying my hair and asked him to pack snacks for himself and Whitney for church. He came back in a few minutes with this in his hands:

"Mom, can you close this baggie for me?"

He had gotten out a cutting board and used a butter knife to slice up a cucumber to pack as a snack. Is that the cutest thing ever??? I was SO impressed. I quickly peeled the skin off of them and put them in the bag and sealed them up and we were on our way.

Church was kind of rough. The last few weeks have been really good, so I was convinced we had reached a turning point as far as reverence, but this week we took a couple of steps backwards. Whitney was really difficult. She kept crying and whining over little things. I had to take her out twice. Brandon wasn't on his best behavior, either.

I got released from my responsibility in the presidency of the Primary (our children's organization). I have loved working in that calling, but it was getting to be a little overwhelming with Andrew's calling. There were some weeks where we would have church meetings 5 of the 7 days of the week! I don't get any rest, though, because I got called to be the chorister for the Primary kids now. I am really excited about it. I think it will be a fun calling. But it might be stressful for the next few weeks as we prepare for our annual Sacrament meeting program put on by the children. We have quite a ways to go in perfecting our songs before then. Hopefully it will all come together.

Here's the latest in my patch gallery:

Winnie the Pooh

When I found out we weren't quite done patching yet, I took some time on Saturday morning while the kids were watching cartoons and drew pictures on all of them that we have left. Brandon and Whitney wanted to help, so they each colored a patch, too.

And, in other exciting news, Brandon finished his Chuck E. Cheese calendar. It only took a month of being in school to get it filled in. :) It's supposed to be a homework calendar, but since his teacher hasn't started assigning homework yet, I told him that I had homework for him: to not be grumpy, whiney, or complain while he's getting ready for school in the mornings. Each morning that he got ready without a fight, I put an X on his calendar (I told him I'd give him the Sat's and Sun's as freebies.) Today he got his last X. Mornings around our house and have been SO much nicer than those first few days where I had to ask him 3 times to do everything. And, no, the 3rd time I ask it usually isn't pretty.

So, we're off to Chuck E. Cheese tonight after Family Home Evening. Yeah!

Bargain shopping

I just had to share some of the great bargains I've found this week. I'm so proud of myself. :)

I was at Borders, looking for a gift for a baby shower
and I found these in the bargain section.

Retail Price: $138.98
(I don't see how ANYONE would pay this
much for these books, but the Celine Dion one
retails for $60 and Liberty and Freedom for$50!)

Price I paid all together: $17.96
Saved: $121.02

For the baby shower, I wanted to get my friend
a few good board books. She's a big reader and
I thought she would appreciate them.
Here's what I found at Borders:

None of them were on sale.
Price: $22.85
I thought this was outrageous and knew
I could find a bargain somewhere!

I went to Ross and found these FIVE board books:

Total price: $19.45
That's more like it!


The Disney Store has some fun things on sale right now, too.

Retail price for all of this: $50.00
(Again, who pays that much for this???)
Price I paid: $19.96 total
I've stashed them away in my closet,
most likely to be used as Christmas presents.
Too fun!

Where do you usually find the best bargains? Found any good ones lately?

Friday--yippee!

Whitney and I had a fun playgroup today at the Environmental Center. Miss Christine, a naturalist, takes us on hikes and finds bugs and other cool stuff to show the kids. She does this once a month and we love it! Last year when we participated there were a few very active boys (Brandon included) who kept it very interesting. It was lots of fun, but not a relaxing morning. This year it is almost all little girls, most of them right around Whitney's age. It was so different. I wasn't constantly looking around to see who Brandon was poking with a stick or making sure he didn't get too far ahead of the pack.

Here the girls are checking out a camel cricket.

Is North Carolina beautiful or what?
I can't believe Utah is already getting
snow. The leaves haven't started turning here, yet,
but there is a little nip in the air the last couple
of days. Andrew always says, "There's football in the air!"

Here is Whitney giving me her "princess smile."
*sidenote* I've already told this to some of you, but it's a cute story, so I thought I'd post it. Whitney is really into "happily ever after" right now. She has apparently seen a few too many kisses at the end of princess books because she was trying to kiss us and Brandon with long, drawn out kisses and she would say, "Happily Ever After..." We told her she can only give "happily ever after kisses" after she gets married... in the temple...when she's much older. So now she talks about that all the time! Every time she gives us a kiss she says, "Not a happily ever after kiss? When I'm married in the temple, I'll give my husband a
happily ever after kiss."

Back to our day, at the end of the hike, Miss Christine takes us back
to the building and often brings out a snake for the kids
to touch. I'm so glad Whitney is having these experiences
now and will possibly not have fear of snakes or bugs when
she gets older. Do you think that's theory will work?

As for Brandon...

He is doing great. He had a smiley face from school every day this week.
In his own words:
I had a really good day. But, guess what? We did that thing that we did yesterday where we changed it around and first we did rest time and then we did outside. But sometimes we do it outside and then rest time.
Me: What's your favorite part about school?
B: Going on the computers for center.
Me: What do you do on the computers?
B: Do fun things. And paint and stuff. The end. Goodbye.

He is never this concise. He must be building something really cool out of legos in the playroom, because he was in a rush to get back there.

Good (but not perfect) news

What a day! We started off the morning with storytime at the library. We read all about fall, as in autumn. I don't think Whitney knows what that word means yet because she told Andrew that we read books about falling down. Huh. They always do an artsy project after the stories are done.

Here's Whitney with one of her little friends
decorating leaves to hang around the art room.

After storytime, we did a little shopping for a baby shower I'm attending this weekend. Then we rushed home because today was a big day. A visit to see Dr. Buckley!!!

Whitney wanted to look good for the occasion!

Brandon got out of school a little early and Andrew took the afternoon off work so we could drive up to Duke and find out if we are FINALLY done patching or not. Andrew and I were hopeful because it just seems like she can see better lately. She points out a lot more things than she used to.

Whitney rocked on the vision test. It was so awesome. She usually has to be inspired to look at the computer monitor and verbalize what she sees, but she was on a roll today. One right after another--teddy bear, birthday cake, telephone, Christmas tree....I could tell she was doing good. It turns out her vision is 20/25 in both eyes right now. Yippee! Now the real news--what do we do from here?

Whitney was excited to see her crush, Dr. Buckley.
Can you tell from the HUGE smile on her face???

Well, he says that even though her vision is equal right now, her eyes still aren't quite aligned. They both point out a little bit. So, when she's look around, she chooses one eye or the other. She's not using them together. He thought the patching would correct that problem, but so far it hasn't. He wants us to patch for another 6 weeks. We had been doing 3 days on and 1 day off. He says we can change to 1 day on and 1 day off. That'll be nice. If at that point her alignment isn't fixed, I'm afraid we might have to do another surgery. BUMMER. I'm not going to worry about it too much right now. We'll cross that bridge when we get there.

On our way home we stopped at a Taco Bell/KFC/Pizza Hut for dinner. I think places like that are the best. What a great idea! Why don't they have more of them? Anyway, as part of the decor, you'll never guess what they had hanging on the wall...

A WHOLE CHICKEN!

Whitney, of course, was the one who pointed this out. :)

Fun Saturday, Lame Date, Good Sunday

We had the funnest afternoon yesterday. We went to a local park where they had a little festival-type event. They hold it annually and this was our second year going. The kids have a blast, and we like it, too. Ok, Brandon and I had a blast. Whitney and Andrew were both tired. He had a temple trip with the youth from Church in the morning. I think he left the house around 6:30. And he got home around noon, so Whitney missed her nap. But they still had a good time.

We did a little tag-team parenting because the kids wanted to do very different activities:

Brandon thought this big inflatable slide was pretty cool.

It turned out to be about the slowest slide ever.

He was also very BRAVE and tried the rock climbing wall.

He made it over half way up--even though he was in bare feet.

Pretty impressive, huh?

Whitney enjoyed the craft table--making this "bug" hat

and gluing sequins and googley eyes on a paper gecko.

And she also loved riding the little train and the carousel

with her daddy.

And they had some tribal drummers there with

empty chairs where you could join the circle. The kids

got really into it--very cute.

Last night was date night and we went on our favorite date--tennis and Sonic. It was terrible. I don't know what was wrong with us, but we looked like we had never played tennis before in our lives. I was embarassed! I kept thinking, I hope no one is secretly filming this because they would have some pretty good blackmailing material. I felt completely uncoordinated. It was crazy. One of the bad things about it was you can't really get a good workout from tennis if you can't rally back and forth more than 2 hits! I told Andrew we're going to have to take a break from tennis next date and try again in a couple of weeks.

Today church went really well. My friend, Nicolle, is still travelling the world, so I was on my own in Sacrament meeting. Luckily the kids were good. And Primary was very non-stressful, too. So I am having a very happy day.

To top it all of, Whitney is starting to potty train herself! Knowing the long road that potty training is, and how much I DON'T like it, I have not put any effort into training her yet. She's showing some of the signs of being ready, but I just don't want to face it. Well, yesterday, she told Andrew she needed to go potty and she peed! Wow! That's awesome. Then today after church she told me she needed to poop and, sure enough, she did it! Yippee! That was a first. I guess I'll have to start putting some effort into this and maybe we can have her potty trained by Christmas. Then again, don't keep your fingers crossed. :)