A New President

I couldn't help watching the inauguration today. I cannot say that I voted for our new president, but I think it's a great thing for our country that we were finally able to put a black man in the White House. I have to admit that I was a little emotional watching this and thinking about how we are experiencing a day that will surely go down in history.

I am hopeful that President Obama will be able to use the good will he has generated to make a positive difference in the way this country is run. I was particularly struck by the prayers that were included in the ceremony--and somewhat surprised to see that prayer is still a part of this process. I thought during these prayers about what they were saying. At some parts I wondered if they were really praying or speech-making, but the overall idea of commending this new first family to the protection of God and praying that our president will be able to lead with integrity and honor and wisdom really struck me.

We had a lesson in church on Sunday about leadership and the one of the ladies there mentioned that we ought to pray for the leaders of our country as well as the leaders of our church. She quoted Ezra Taft Benson saying that his family always prayed for the leaders of our nation when he was a child, but he doubted whether that practice had been carried into subsequent generations. I thought about that today and I decided to kneel down and pray for our new president. I prayed for the things that I hope--that he will be able to do what is best for our country and help our country to heal from the various problems afflicting it right now.

It's a new year, a new presidential administration, and a new era in American history. May we move forward with hope and progress as we do as President Obama requested and return to the values upon which this country was founded.

Peanut Butter Recall

Just in case any of you haven't heard, there's been a recall of some peanut butter products used in food service and food production. I had heard that Keebler recalled their peanut butter crackers and stuff, but assumed that my Austin crackers were safe. Not so. I just got a call from Costco informing me that Austin crackers are also included in the recall. Apparently Keebler, Austin and Famous Amous are all subsidiaries of Kellogg's and are all included in the recall. And the FDA has confirmed that salmonella has been found in some Austin peanut butter crackers. Here's a link with more info. So, if you've got some of these crackers, throw them away. I'm wondering now if perhaps my kids' vomiting might not be related to the crackers. They have been eating them recently. But so have I and I'm okay. Hopefully it's just a run of the mill stomach virus.

An interesting week

So, I sprained my knee about a week and a half ago. I sprained it doing something really exciting--walking through my apartment. I think I was trying to avoid stepping on one of the million things the kids had left on the floor, but I can't say for sure. It was all very sudden and unexpected. So, I've been having to use the car to take Ruby to and from school. No school today, though. Or tomorrow. I'm hopeful that I'll be up to making the walk again by Wednesday. Of course, it's supposed to rain on Wednesday.

There are some definite perks to living in this area, even if the price of housing is not one of them. It's been in the 70's for the past week. Yes, in the 70's for over a week. In the middle of January. Ha ha!

Charles lucked out and got a pair of free tickets to two Sharks games last week. One set he had gotten for Christmas and it was for the game against Calgary so he decided to take our friend Ryan, who is from Canada and is a big Calgary fan. I generally encourage him to take friends along when he gets the ticket because it's more fun for him to go with someone who is really into the game and have a guys' night out. And we don't have to find a baby-sitter. Anyhow, Tuesday he happened to have some tickets given to him that day by a former co-worker who is a season ticket holder and couldn't attend. We called everyone we could think of who might want to go with him (though I did think of one other person afterward) and everyone was busy. So, my friend Sara offered to watch the kids and Charles and I had a date. It was my first time attending an NHL game, though I had previously attended a game of the Las Vegas Thunder (remember that, Lisa?) and seen the Provo Ice Cats play. I do like Hockey and actually know a little bit about it, so it was fun. Thanks, Sara!

Last Monday our apartment complex began ripping up sidewalks and replacing them. They gave us no warning that they were doing this, except for a note placed on our doors as the jackhammers started. I was pretty mad about this, especially considering my sprained knee and the fact that they started with the part of the walkway at the base of my stairs. Yet another reason why I hate the management at this complex. Russell and I spent the morning trapped in our apartment with the windows closed even though the weather was screaming for us to open the windows. We had to leave very carefully to get Ruby and come back in just as carefully over the rubble. The next day I left for the morning to take Ruby to school and then did some shopping and hung out at my visiting teacher's apartment until it was time to get Ruby. Then Ruby had a play date with a friend, so Russell and I went and picked up Charles and went out to lunch. We picked Ruby up from her playdate at three and then ventured home. We learned then that they would be pouring cement the next day. Well, they were already placing the rebar and everything really early the next morning (like around 7) so we packed for the day before taking Charles to work in the morning. We took Ruby to school and then Russell and I spent the day hanging out at my dad's house. Since I have to pick up Ruby at 12:45, I didn't want to risk being trapped in our apartment. Well, as we were leaving the school from picking Ruby up, Russell puked. Luckily it shot out of him and none actually got on him. He didn't puke any more, but he was running a fever. We went back to my dad's for a while and then arrived home around 4:00, just as the work crew was packing up. It was perfect timing. (They put plywood down so we could get to our stairway as long as we didn't mind climbing through bushes, too). Super fun with a sprain. Russell napped for a while and I gave him some Tylenol and then he was fine after that. It was a less-than-24-hour bug.

Well, Saturday night Ruby was griping and moaning that she wasn't feeling well and thought she was going to throw up. Stomach bugs usually hit her hard, so I was all prepared to stay home from church with her on Sunday. But, I was very surprised to find in the morning that she hadn't thrown up and was feeling fine--was even full of energy. So I thought we lucked out and the bug was past. No such luck. She started puking during the night last night. I had made arrangements to baby-sit one of Ruby's friends today. Her daycare is closed for the holiday but her parents don't get the day off. Neither does Charles. We were planning to go to the Children's Discovery Museum. Of course our plans changed. I'm still baby-sitting Jane, but we're at home. Ruby alternates between swearing she's fine and begging to go outside to play and being completely miserable. She's laying in bed now.

I gave Charles and Russell haircuts Saturday night. I always cut Charles' hair. It's an easy style and saves $$$. I cut Russell's, too, but he gets his cut less often. Well, I took advantage of his desire to be like Daddy and cut his hair right after I finished with Charles. They got identical haircuts. A two on top and a one on the sides. Russell looks much better without the poofy hair. He wore his suit to church on Sunday and looked very handsome. People were commenting on how cute he looked in his suit with his hair cut. I intended to take a picture of it, but didn't get a chance before he got chocolate on his suit.

Russell's been growing a lot lately. He's getting very tall and lean and looks very much like a little boy instead of a toddler. People always think he's at least a year older than he is. He's only about 2 1/2 inches shorter than Ruby now and they wear the same size shoe. I think he's definitely going to take after his "Heepaw" Pogue and be very tall. Now, if we could just get him potty trained. He did surprise us and stay dry overnight Saturday night.

I got a couple of gift certificates for Christmas and decided to spend them on pampering myself. I got a Homedics Shiatsu massaging seat cushion with heat. (It's a seat cushion, but it massages your back, not your "seat.") I've been using it on the couch. It's great. Now I just need to put some really relaxing music on my mp3 player and lock up the kids when I use it and it'll be a perfect little break for me.

To Utah or not to Utah?

I've been pondering the idea of taking a very short trip out to Utah for the Draper temple open house. Ruby has four day weekends for Martin Luther Kind Day and President's day. I think it would be nice to take the kids to it, but it's not exactly the best time of year to be traveling. Weather is a really big consideration. Plus, it'd be a REALLY short trip. Then there's the issue of who to stay with if I go.... I'd also either have to have Ruby skip school one day or else do a temple tour Monday morning and then head home right after. Of course, I'd still have Sunday available for visiting. The President's day weekend is the only weekend of the two I'm looking at that still has tour tickets available for Saturday and Monday. Of course Martin Luther King weekend is the first weekend of the open house, so it's no surprise that those are gone already. I'm still really debating what to do. Any comments or suggestions from the peanut gallery?

Do you have an ugly couch?

Okay, I just happened upon this when I was on AOL checking my email. Apparently there is a contest for the ugliest couch in the world and this has photos of some current entrants and past winners. They are pretty bad... and great if you need a laugh. It makes me grateful that my couch and love seat are fairly decent looking, even if they are hand-me-downs from the 70's.

Ugliest Couches in the World

Things Russell has done in the past couple weeks

Here's a sampling of things Russell has delighted me with in the last couple weeks. He:

1--Loosened the lid on a Costco size container of Taco Seasoning and then threw it across the living room. The lid came off and taco seasoning filled the carpet.
2--Dumped a box of baking soda in the living room carpet.
3--smeared half a jar of peanut butter in the living room carpet and all over a step-stool from the bathroom.
4--smeared a stick of margarine in the living room carpet
5--dumped about half a bottle of blue raspberry flavored snow cone syrup in his bedroom carpet.
6--dumped a bunch of water and juice into the bread machine on top of the dough that had just finished kneading.
7--cut holes in my nice, expensive sheets (not sure if this was him or Ruby)
8--dumped a whole bottle of silver paint onto the red sign I had just painted and was letting dry.

On the plus side, I shampooed my living room carpet last week. Of course, since the margarine was today, I have to do it again. I have definitely gotten my money's worth out of the Hoover Steam Vac I bought when Ruby was about 15 months old. I've had it over 4 years now and have used it at least every three months. There were some time periods in there when I was using it every day. That was Ruby's poop-smearing phase. Boy am I glad Russell has not had a similar phase---You hear that sound? That's me knocking on wood.

Of course, amid all his mess making, he likes to crawl into my lap and give me a hug and say, "I wuv you, Mommy." It's hard to stay mad for too long. He's just so darn cute.

The Digger

The San Jose Water Company (which is a private entity not owned by the city) has decided to replace all the old fire hydrants with new ones before the end of the year. There have been a couple of crews working on this in the neighborhood between our apartment and Ruby's school. Last week we just happened to walk past one as they finished using the jack hammer on the sidewalk around the fire hydrant. We decided to stand and watch them dig up the area around the hydrant. They had a big Cat bulldozer/digger that they used to dig up the sidewalk and the dirt about four feet down. Russell thought this was great. Even I thought it was pretty cool. I was amazed at how smoothly this thing worked. It almost seemed like it was an animal digging with its hands. We watched for about an hour, which is when the crew decided that the pipes were weird there and they were going to have to come back another day and dig up the street, too. I had to drag the kids home.

The day before that Russell and I watched a crane lifting roof panels from a truck onto the new building under construction at Ruby's school. Russell just loves that kind of stuff. He's really into Bob the Builder and tools and big machines.

Saturday was an event at Ruby's school called "Holiday in the Garden." The "garden" part is because the school is in the Rose Garden area of San Jose. It is, in fact, across the street from the Rose Garden. It's a big fundraiser for the PTO (similar to PTA). They decorate the kindergarten area and have booths and food and other things for sale and various performances and a silent auction. The kinders and first graders kicked it off with singing several songs. Ruby was very cute. I helped set up that morning. I also made a "north pole" for the decorations around our classroom. It was a six foot tall PVC pipe with red tinsel around it in a tree stand. I painted up a sign for it that said "north pole." It turned out pretty well, despite some attempts by my children to sabotage the project (one of which involved Ruby painting my kitchen cabinets red and another of which involved Russell dumping my entire bottle of silver paint on the sign). I decided to donate the north pole to the PTO for use in future years. I don't really have anywhere to put it. It did look really nice with the other decorations, though. Our classroom area was decorated so nicely that the PTO decided to have the Santa pictures in front of our display instead of inside the classroom.

Well, I'm off to dinner with some friends from our ward.

Rants, bragging, etc.

Okay, I know I'm way behind on this blog thing. I'll update more later. Suffice it to say, we've been pretty busy and we had yet another visit from the exterminator. They at least did other apartments this time, although they didn't do the whole building like I had demanded. We'll definitely be having another visit sometime soon. This latest visit, unlike the three prior to it, actually seemed to do some good. Perhaps actually treating the apartment where the problem originated (which shares my kitchen wall) helped. Anyway, they actually kind of went away for about a week and a half. But they reappeared in my kitchen yesterday and today. I started looking at real estate and apartment listings again today. I have to say, though, that this whole experience has left me with a desire to never again live in an apartment/condo/townhouse or anything else with shared walls.

On a more cheerful subject, last month Ruby got an award at school for being the "most improved" student that month. It was mostly for her printing and coloring/drawing. She really has made huge leaps forward in that area since school started. We had parent/teacher conferences last week, too. Her teacher said that Ruby is really probably the most improved student overall in the class. She's at or above grade level in everything, works well, follows instructions, etc. It was just a really positive conference. Ruby's teacher also said that some of the girls are starting with the "you can't be my friend" thing and it's getting to be kind of a problem. I was amazed that they are already doing that at 5 years old. Anyway, one of the girls in the class is having some trouble making friends. She's quiet and reserved. Her mom was kind of concerned about it and Mrs. Viau (the teacher) suggested Ruby as a friend for her because Ruby is so kind and nice and it's not in Ruby's nature to refuse to be friends with someone. It made us feel good to hear about what a nice girl we have. I guess we must be doing something right. Of course, it also helps that Ruby really likes this girl and already was making friends with her.

Ruby didn't have school last Friday since it was an inservice day for parent-teacher conferences. We had done our conference earlier in the week, so I took the kids to the Oakland Zoo to spend the day. It was nice. We don't get to do too many all day activities like that now that Ruby is in school, so I seized the opportunity. The kids really liked seeing all the animals (and going on the rides). The elephants were a favorite. The kids thought it was hilarious when the elephants started pooping and peeing. It is rather amazing to see the large quantities coming out of them. Elephant pee looks rather like someone turned on a fire hose. They have a petting zoo area with goats and sheep, too. There were little brushes there, too. The kids had a blast brushing the goats. I got a lot of cute pictures of them at the zoo, which I will post later.

Some of you have wondered how it works having only one car. Ruby's school is 1 mile from our apartment. Charles works 1.5 miles from the apartment and 1.85 miles from Ruby's school. He generally takes the car to work. If I happen to need it during the day I either drop him off at work or, more commonly, after I walk Ruby to school I walk over to Charles' office to pick up the car. Then I just pick him up from work in the evening. He could really walk home from work or take the bus, but doing the bus frequently would end up costing us more than his car was costing us and we sold it in an effort to save money. He works so close and the bus is so expensive that it's actually cheaper to drive and pick him up. It's been working out fine so far. It's very rare that we both need the car. And we've managed to avoid rain during the walking to and from school hours so far. Except for yesterday. It was pouring yesterday, but Charles just went and got Ruby from school and brought her home in the car and ate lunch at home then went back to work. It's very convenient having him work so close.

That's about all the time I have for now. I'll post more later. Happy Thanksgiving!

Sorry I'm so lame...

Do you ever have times when it seems like all your responsibilities and major events happen at once? That's about what the last month has been like. So, sorry I haven't posted for a long time. Here's a bit of what's been happening.

Ruby is in a PIE class. PIE stands for Parents Involved in Education or something like that. Anyway, in order to be in the class, each family commits to work four hours per month either helping out in the classroom or doing various other things to help the school. I am the PIE coordinator for her class. That means I am in charge of collecting all the forms from parents, putting together the class directory, schedules, etc. and keeping parents informed of things that need to be done, etc. Most of the work involved in this position happens at the beginning of the year, so I've been kind of swamped with that. Part of being in the PIE class is that you also have to attend an orientation meeting at the beginning of the year. Well, our PIE meeting was the night before the exterminator was supposed to come last month. On the way home I stopped and picked up some fast food for dinner. Well, I woke up the next morning with food poisoning. It was a mild case, but enough to make me unable to empty out my kitchen and then leave the apartment for several hours. So, I ended up having to cancel that appointment and they were supposed to reschedule. Well our manager was awful, and took forever rescheduling. Then we got new managers and they didn't know anything about my "pest problem" so I had to get them to schedule it. They ended up not coming until last week. More on that later.

In the meantime, we've also been doing some stuff for Prop. 8 here, I've been making the class directory and stuff and trying to track down parents who didn't turn stuff in, celebrating family birthdays, etc. And I've also had a bunch of stuff to do for church. I'm really hoping things will calm down soon. I did finally get around to giving Russell a haircut, too. His head doesn't look like a giant dandelion anymore.

One of the things we've also done this past month is sell Charles' car, so there were a few days tied up with things related to that. Luckily, it sold really quickly, so it wasn't too much of an ordeal. We're now officially a one car family. It's actually working out just fine for us, too.

To be continued......

Shoe Fetish

I have a little boy who LOVES shoes. He always wants to wear shoes, even when he is asleep. He had some rain boots that he would wear everywhere. He'd put them on at night and during the day. He wore those things all the time. Sometimes I'd even have to promise to put them back on over his pajamas just to get his pajamas on him. Every once in a while I'd have to hide them in order to give his feet a chance to air out. They're a little small for him now, and now he has some different rain boots that look like giraffes. Those are his faves now, but he still just loves shoes.

Monday night when I put Russell to bed, he was dressed in blanket sleepers. When I went to get him out of his room Tuesday morning, this is what I found:

Yes, nothing but a pull-up and Ruby's church shoes. It was cold, too.

A couple days ago Russell managed to get himself extremely dirty. He got melted popsicle all over himself and then played outside in the dirt. I gave him a large wet washcloth and told him to go look in the mirror and clean off his face. He took the washcloth and disappeared for a minute then came back and announced that he was "all clean." Here's what he looked like when he returned:

He had cleaned around his right eye and considered his face "all clean." This kid is almost impossible to keep clean. He sometimes manages to get dirty again even before I get him dried off and dressed after his bath. He's like a walking dirt magnet.

I may not be posting again for several days. The exterminator is coming again tomorrow, so I'll be spending the rest of today and tomorrow morning getting ready for that and then spending the next few days putting my home back together. So if I don't post again until next week, that is why.